Aizawl, Jan 26 (IANS) Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police in a joint operation recovered huge explosive materials in Mizoram’s Aizawl district, an official said on Sunday.
A Defence spokesperson said that acting on specific intelligence information about the movement of explosives in Durtlang Leitan areas of Aizawl district, Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police established a mobile vehicle check post on Durtlang to Kawnpui road on Saturday night.
The alert security team stopped a vehicle and on thorough search recovered 7,000 different coloured electric detonators and apprehended a person identified as Runmawia (34).
The apprehended individual and the recovered items have been handed over to Mizoram Police.
A senior Mizoram Police officer said that even as they have been questioning the arrested individual, they suspect that the electric detonators are likely to be smuggled to either Myanmar or Bangladesh.
On January 18, Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police jointly seized 30 gelatin sticks and 20 detonators from a vehicle near the Aijal Club at Khatla Road in Aizawl.
The driver of the vehicle, identified as Hmingthansanga (42), a resident of Hnahthial district, was also arrested.
Also, police seized a large cache of arms and ammunition on January 15 while those were being supplied by an insurgent outfit based in Myanmar to the rebel group in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of southeast Bangladesh.
A Mizoram Home Department official had said that in connection with the arms seizure, five accused have been arrested.
Among those detained is a top leader of the Chin National Front (CNF), an insurgent group based in Myanmar.
The arms and ammunition seized from the Saithah village in bordering Mamit District include six AK-47 rifles, 10,050 cartridges of AK-47 rifles and 13 Magazines.
The official said that the confiscated arms and ammunition were intended for trade between the CNF from Myanmar, a prominent rebel organisation and the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF-P), another insurgent group active in the CHT.
The Assam Rifles have been guarding the 510 km unfenced Mizoram international border with Myanmar while the Border Security Force (BSF) guarding the 318 km unfenced state’s frontiers with Bangladesh.
The recent seizures underscore the concerns over the illegal trade of arms and explosives through the porous international Mizoram’s borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh despite the border guarding forces stepping up vigilance to curb all kinds of trans-border illicit activities.
–IANS
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