India: Exogenous Conflicts In Mizoram – Analysis

By Mutum Kenedy Singh*

On March 17, 2023, Assam Rifles, in a joint operation with the Police, arrested two persons and seized arms and ammunition, from the Chite Veng area of Aizawl District. Two pistols, four live rounds of ammunition and two pistol magazines were recovered from the arrested persons.

On March 17, 2023, Assam Rifles, in a joint operation with the Police, arrested Faliansang Bawm, a cadre of the Kuki Chin National Army (KCNA), a Bangladesh-based rebel outfit, from Bungtlang village in Lawngtlai District. 

On March 10, 2023, Assam Rifles, in a joint operation with the Police, arrested two high-ranking KCNA cadres, identified as Zingramlian and Pazau, both Bangladeshi nationals, from Hmunnuam village of Lawngtalai District. 

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least 11 insurgents have been arrested in the current year, thus far (data till April 16, 2023). In 2022, a total of 15 arrests were made, in addition to 14 in 2021. Since March 6, 2000, when SATP started compiling data on insurgencies in India’s northeast, 207 insurgents have been arrested in Mizoram. 

There have been four incidents of arms recovery in 2023. There were 13 such incidents in 2022 and eight in 2021. Since March 6, 2000, the state has recorded 86 incidents of arms recovery.  

No violent incident has been recorded in the state, thus far, in the current year. 

However, reversing the trend of zero fatalities established since 2016, three fatalities were recorded in 2022.On March 18, 2022, three persons were killed while another was injured in an explosion in the Durtlang Mual Veng locality of Aizawl District in Mizoram. Though the explosion was initially believed to be a cylinder blast, on-site investigations led to the recovery of 900 detonators. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is investigating the case. 

The last civilian killing before this was reported on October 15, 2014, when the bodies of two non-tribals were found near the Tuikhurhlu area in Aizawl District. Since March 6, 2000, the state has recorded nine insurgency-linked civilian fatalities.

The last insurgency-linked fatality (prior to March 18, 2022) was reported on March 28, 2015, when three Policemen were killed and another two were injured in an attack by HPC-Democrats (HPC-D) on a convoy accompanying a group of Members of the Legislative Assembly near Zokhawthiang in Aizawl District. The three MLAs, R.L. Pianmawia, Lalawmpuii Chawngthu and Lalthanliana, escaped unhurt. 19 Security Force (SF) personnel have been killed in the state since March 6, 2000. 

Further, 11 insurgents have been killed in the state since March 6, 2000. The last such killing was reported on March 5, 2007, when suspected Hmar People’s Convention-Democracy (HPC-D) cadres killed six Hmar National Army (HNA) insurgents in an area along the Mizoram-Manipur border.  

Since March 6, 2000, the state has recorded a total of 39 insurgency-linked fatalities.  

One of the most pressing security challenges, despite long established peace and stability in the state, is the issue of the flow of illicit arms and ammunition into the state, prompted by the deteriorating security situation in Myanmar since the February 1, 2021, military coup. There has been a considerable upsurge in the incident of recoveries of weapons and explosives in the state since, with at least 25 incidents of recovery being reported. Moreover, of the 40 persons arrested in the state since February 1, 2021, 16 are from Myanmar, from insurgent groups such as the Chin National Front (CNF) and the Maraland Defence Force (MDF).  

Myanmar and Mizoram share a porous border of 510 kilometers. Following the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, many ‘refugees’ continue to pour in from the Chin State of Myanmar into the border districts of Mizoram, such as Champhai, Lawngtlai, Siaha, Saitual, Hnahthial and Serchhip. 

Mizoram has sheltered nearly 30,400 such refugees in 160 relief camps along the border, across eight of the 11 Districts of the state. Most of the refugees belong to the Kuki-Chin community and share similar cultural, ethnic and linguistic affinities with the Mizo people. 

The migration of refugees continues despite the Government of India’s (GoI’s) refusal to grant ‘refugee’ status to the Kuki-Chins from Myanmar on legal grounds, since India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and its 1967 Protocol.

Reports claim that since the coup in Myanmar, the Mizoram State Government has received minimal support from the GoI to address the issue of Kuki-Chin refugees. This has fueled a sense of disenchantment towards the GoI within the state government and local civil society circles, and risks further alienating the Mizos. 

Meanwhile, over 200 Kuki-Chin people fled their homes in Cheihkhiang and three other nearby villages in the Chittagong Hill tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh, following an armed conflict between the Bangladesh Army, allegedly in collusion with the Arakan Army and the KCNA, on November 16-17, 2022. The military operations aimed to prevent the CHT from turning into a hotbed of Islamist terror. Bangladesh’s security establishment is weary of cooperation between Islamist terror groups such as the Jamaa’tul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya (JAFHS) and the KCNA. The KCNA is suspected to be training JAFHS cadres. 

These 200 refugees have taken shelter in southern Mizoram’s Lawngtlai District. Mizoram shares a 318-kilometres stretch of international border with Bangladesh. The Mizoram government and civil society organizations have accused the Border Security Force (BSF), which guards the Indo-Bangladesh border, of preventing refugees from Bangladesh from entering the state. Indeed, K. Vanlalvena, a Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Indian Parliament) Member from Mizoram, asserted that the prevention of “ethnic Mizo” from Bangladesh from entering India would amount to “discrimination on ethnic grounds” as, in the 1970s, thousands of displaced Chakmas (mostly Buddhists) from Bangladesh were allowed to enter India and settle in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. He alleged that, on January 6, 2023, the BSF intercepted 150 Kuki-Chin refugees from Bangladesh along the Mizoram-Bangladesh border. 

The state’s response to the refugee crisis is guided by cultural and ethnic considerations, sometimes at variance with the GoI’s directives. Since the refugee issue is transnational and involves multiple stakeholders, a clear and concise policy is needed to overcome the emerging security and humanitarian challenges.

In addition, the issue of the ‘Bru’ tribes remains an enduring problem in Mizoram. The Brus, also referred to as Reangs, are inhabitants of Mizoram’s Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei Districts. Due to tribal rivalries over the Mizo groups’ contention that the Brus “are not indigenous to Mizoram,” ethnic violence forced thousands of Bru to leave their homes in Mizoram. More than 30,000 were displaced from Mizoram to Tripura in 1997, following ethnic violence. An agreement signed between the GoI and the Mizoram Bru Refugees Displaced Forum on July 3, 2018, for repatriation of the Bru tribals to Mizoram, is yet to be implemented. Repatriation of the internally displaced Brus is an ongoing challenge, since the Mizos of Mizoram continue to contest the indigeneity of Brus to the state. Meanwhile, in December 2022, 2,000 Bru voters, out of over 11,000 from Mizoram, were deleted from the state voters’ list following their enrollment in neighboring Tripura’s electoral rolls.

Further, the interstate border dispute between Assam and Mizoram is an ongoing issue that both sides are trying to resolve. Most recently, on April 10, 2023, the Mizoram Government submitted a list of villages along the Assam-Mizoram border in the Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi Districts of Assam, to the Assam Government, over which Aizawl makes a territorial claim. The Assam Government has forwarded the list of villages submitted by Mizoram to the Deputy Commissioners of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi for verification and clarification of details. Assam and Mizoram share a boundary of 164.6 kilometers.

The drug trade is another significant security challenge, with Mizoram lying on the edges of the Golden Triangle. Anti-smuggling operations by the State Police, the Assam Rifles and the Department of Excise and Narcotics resulted in record drug hauls, with narcotics worth INR 4.63 billion seized from different parts of the state between 2021 and 2023.

Mizoram has remained relatively free of insurgency-related violence after the conclusion of the Mizo Accord in 1986. The Accord is hailed as a model of peace and as the most successful peace accord in the region. However, troubling legacy issues such as the repatriation of the internally displaced Bru tribes from Tripura and the Assam-Mizoram interstate boundary issue, remain unresolved. The state is also affected by exogenous conflicts in Myanmar and Bangladesh, leading to increased weapons and explosives smuggling, a heavy influx of refugees, and movement of Kuki-Chin militants from neighboring countries. All these issues need to be addressed through bilateral engagements with Myanmar and Bangladesh. The present challenges in Mizoram can be met with the evolution and refinement of the security and other policy praxis under the Look East and Act East Policy, to ensure that the hard-won peace in the state endures.

*Mutum Kenedy Singh
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management