Mizoram Home Minister Warns: Over 50% of Crimes in State Linked to Refugees

Ukhrul, June 28: Mizoram Home Minister K. Sapdanga has expressed grave concern over the rising crime rate in the state, attributing more than half of recent criminal cases to individuals who entered Mizoram as refugees from neighbouring countries and other Indian states.

Speaking at a high-level review meeting, as per reports, K. Sapdanga stated that “more than half of the criminal cases were connected with displaced people from across the international border,” with over 40,000 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) currently sheltered in Mizoram.

The Mizoram Home Department has taken in several thousands of refugees from Myanmar fleeing the 2021 military coup; Bangladeshi nationals, primarily from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, displaced during the 2022 military offensives and other crises; and internally displaced people from Manipur, driven out by inter-ethnic violence since May 2023.

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Examples include the 272 Kuki-Chin refugees fleeing from Bangladesh in November 2022, who were lodged in a church and primary school in Simeinasora village near the Mizoram-Bangladesh-Myanmar tri-junction, as a result of armed conflict between the ethnic separatist group Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA) and the Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion. The Mizo Students’ Union (MSU), in order to provide humanitarian aid, had urged the Border Security Forces not to prevent the fleeing refugees from entering Mizoram.

It may be recalled that “around 600 people from Myanmar have moved towards the Indian side for safer accommodation. The refugees are mostly from Shan, Myanmarese (Burmese), and a few Kuki,” mostly women and children, who moved towards the Indian side of the Indo-Myanmar border, especially at Phaikoh village and Huimin Thana under Kamjong district.

Many Myanmarese nationals who were caught by the authorities in Mizoram and other Northeast states for criminal and drug trafficking activities were found in possession of fake Aadhaar cards. On June 24, the Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police arrested a Myanmarese national in Hiangmun, Saitual district, Mizoram, with heroin worth Rs. 90.75 lakh. The individual was carrying an Aadhaar card issued in Manipur, an Assam Rifles stated. Security forces, on several occasions, have arrested Myanmarese nationals carrying fake Aadhaar cards.

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It is worth noting that the Mizoram Police had commended the exemplary efforts of an Indigo staffer who helped in the seizure of a substantial quantity of Crystal Meth worth over Rs. 25 crore from Myanmarese nationals, as well as the detection of live .22 ammunition from a man from Churachandpur, Manipur.