Security forces on Wednesday recovered a huge haul of explosives, suspected to be meant for Myanmar’s anti-coup rebels, along the International border with India’s Mizoram state.
The two were arrested on the Serchhip-Thenzawl road carrying what officials claim were ‘war-like stores.’ The seized items included 9600 gelatin sticks, 9400 detonators and 1800 meters of CS-DT, or Cordtex, used in explosive detonation.
The vehicle was intercepted by a joint team of Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police from a checkpoint where the forces had laid a blockade following intelligence reports of the perpetration of a crime involving the transportation of explosives in the zone. On X, in an official statement, the army asserted that the Mizoram side had been seized and narrated the coordinated operations of Assam Rifles and the Mizoram Police in eradicating the smuggling of hazardous items across the poorly fenced border.
The operation has been carried out as Assam Rifles, the main frontier guarding force on the Indo-Myanmar border, has recently stepped up its activity over intelligence inputs that some PDF cadres are trying to smuggle explosives and other suspicious things via Mizoram.
The PDF, an armed group against the junta in Myanmar since the military coup on February 1, 2021, which removed the elected government of Suu Kyi, has been energetically facing the junta, and the warfare is intensifying, resulting in insecurity in the area.
This latest seizure is the second big haul of explosives intercepted in Myanmar in the last month. On October 12, Assam Rifles claimed to have recovered 39,000 detonators left at a hiding place beside the Tiau River in the border area.
Earlier this May, a CRF member, another group which is against the Myanmar junta, was also nabbed while trying to transport banned bullets, radio set and other tactical gear into Myanmar through Mizoram, the Assam Rifles officials added.
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