Mizoram (Insurgency North East): Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2014

The Shillong Times reports that civil societies and student bodies hoisted a black flag in the office of the Mizoram Election department on April 2 in protest against the Election Commission of India’s decision allowing the Bru voters to exercise franchise inside the relief camps in Tripura. The Bru voters were casting votes through postal ballots since April 2 for the election to Mizoram’s lone Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) seat to be held on April 9. The civil societies wanted that all the Brus lodged in the relief camps should return to Mizoram and exercise franchise at the place where they were enrolled as voters. Read less...

The Shillong Times reports that civil societies and student bodies, on April 5, decided to boycott elections to the lone Mizoram Lok Sabha seat to be held on April 9 and called for a 72-hour statewide bandh (shut down strike) from April 7, protesting against voting by displaced Bru tribals from relief camps in Tripura. Leaders of the central committee of Young Mizo Association (YMA), the Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) or Mizo Women's Federation, Mizoram Upa Pawl (MUP) or Elders' Association, Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), Mizo Students' Federation and Mizo Students' Union (MSU) decided to call the bandh from 5 am on April 7. At least 7,987 votes (70.04%) were polled in six Bru relief camps of Tripura for election to the Mizoram's single Lok Sabha seat, adds the Times of India. Polling began on April 1 and concluded on April 3. Read less...

The Shillong Times reports that Mizoram Police arrested two persons, one of them a resident of Aizawl and another from Tahan in Mynamar, while another suspected Myanmarese national is still absconding and seized four AK-47 assault rifles and one M-4 A-1 Carbine machine from the Mizoram-Myanmar border Champhai town, Police sources said on April 6. Earlier on April 5, Police also seized 1,200 rounds of AK-47 rifle ammunition, four magazines, 12 rounds of the Carbine Machine Gun and one magazine, the sources said. The arms were reportedly smuggled from Myanmar, Police said. Read less...

Polling for Mizoram’s Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) seat went off peacefully on April 11 with around 60 per cent voter turnout, reports The Telegraph. Mizoram’s Chief Electoral Officer Ashwani Kumar estimated the voter turnout to be 60 per cent but added that it might cross the mark. “The figure is higher than the 50.93 per cent turnout recorded in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls but lower than the 83.41 per cent recorded in the 2013 Assembly polls,” he said. According to the Election Commission, the voter turnout in 706 of the 1,126 polling stations in the state was 59.89 per cent. Read less...

The Shillong Times reports that Mizoram has undertaken a fresh initiative to take back the tribal refugees sheltering in neighbouring Tripura for the past 17 years after fleeing from their villages. “A meeting of the State Level Core Committee on tribal refugee repatriation, chaired by Mizoram Home Minister R. Lalzirliana was held in Aizawl on April 21. It was decided in the meeting to resume the repatriation before the counting of votes of the Lok Sabha election May 16,” a Mizoram home department official told reporters. The official said the home department would take up the matter with the Election Commission to find out whether the refugee repatriation process would violate the model code of conduct in force for the Lok Sabha polls. He said the central government has sanctioned INR 78.7 million as financial assistance to the repatriated refugees. “Adequate foodgrain has been stored to provide free rations to the repatriated tribal refugees for one year.” Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla and six voluntary organisations have been demanding the refugees to be repatriated to their villages in Mizoram and then allowed to cast their votes in the normal process. Only about 5,000 refugees returned to their homes in the past three-and-half years following continued persuasion by Mizoram, Tripura and the union home ministry officials. The repatriation process was subsequently stopped. The refugees insist on a written agreement with the Mizoram Government assuring them security and economic settlement in their villages in western Mizoram. Read less...