M-16, AK-47 among arms seized from Mizoram house
NEW DELHI: The Border Security Force (BSF) has recovered arms and ammunition from a house in Mizoram’s capital Aizawl, near the border with Myanmar.
The recovery was made on Tuesday during a regular patrolling of an area within Aizawl by 61 Battalion, the BSF said in a statement.
The arms recovered include six M-16 rifles, three AK-47 rifles, one SLR rifle and one G-3 rifle, a 9mm pistol, two claymore mines and an under barrel grenade launcher. The soldiers also recovered ~1,19,100 in cash from the house.
The place from where the recovery has been made is about 5 km from the International Border. The ammunition appears to have been dumped by the Arakan Liberation Army, a rebel group in the western state of Rakhine in Myanmar, the BSF said, adding that it carries the group’s insignia. This group, which has signed a ceasefire agreement with Myanmar’s government, represents Buddhist inhabitants of Rakhine state who are seeking an autonomy.
This is not the first significant arms seizure in Aizawl. In one of the biggest haul of weapons, the Assam Rifles seized 33 AK-47 rifles, a combat browning automatic rifle, a 5.56 automatic light machine gun, 49 loaded magazines and 809 rounds of ammunition from the outskirts of the city a few years ago.
According to police and intelligence officials, the weapons were being smuggled to Bangladesh. Four northeastern states - Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam - share a 1,880-km border with Bangladesh, while Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have a 1,640-km unfenced border with Myanmar.