Sunday, December 11 2005 11:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Aizawl: Sandwiched between Myanmar and Bangladesh and sharing a 722-km border with the two countries infested with insurgents and gun-runners, Mizoram's reputation as the most peaceful state in the north east region might be short lived.

The proximity with Myanmar, through which narcotics from the infamous Golden Triangle are smuggled, also makes Mizoram a target for narco-terrorists who combine drug trafficking and gun running.

A senior state police official told sources that the insurgents, gun-runners and drug traffickers have been taking advantage of the peace that has prevailed in the state for two decades since the historic peace accord was signed between the Centre and the erstwhile underground group Mizo National Front (MNF) on June 30, 1986.

"Operation Golden Bird, launched jointly by Indian and Myanmarese Governments against north east insurgent groups in Mizoram Myanmar border areas in 1994 exposed the vulnerability of the state," the police official said.

Militant groups like NSCN (I-M), ULFA and PLA, after receiving huge consignment of arms from Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, returned to their camps not from easier and shorter routes through Tripura and Assam but the tedious and different terrain of Mizoram-Myanmar border jungle routes.

A number of militants along with their sophisticated arms were arrested during the course of the operation.

The erstwhile Mizoram's southern Chhimtuipui district, now bifurcated into Saiha and Lawngtlai districts, is also a haven for foreign insurgents and gun runners.

Militant outfit Chin Army cadre Laldina said, "Here, you can get anything from the smallest handgun to a rocket launcher, from Russian Kalashnikov to a Chinese version of AK-47 assault rifle, from American M-16 to German HK-33 and Chinese SKS rifle."

The insurgents are in the southernmost parts of the state because the area is close to the "no man's land" of Indo-Myanmar-Bangladesh border area.

The area, called 'the tri-junction', becomes a haven for militants and gun-runners who have easy access to Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar widely regarded as 'arms bazar'.

Former Chin Independent Army chief J Kiauluaia said one can buy arms at throw-away prices from the tri-junction and he himself used to purchase from there for some officials and politicians.

F Rozathanga, former leader of the Chin Liberation Organisation, a break-away group of the Chin National Front, alleged while the Bangladesh side of the 'no man's land' harbours NSCN (I-M), Chin National Army and Chittagong Hill Tracts Liberation Organisation, the area closer to Myanmar are the bases of Arkanese and Chin insurgents.

The southern tip of the state closer to Arakan province of Myanmar is full of Arakanese outfits like the National Unity Party of Arakan, Arakan Liberation Party, Arakan Army, Khumi Liberation Army, Dragon National Party led by its former supreme, the late Mongshe.