Police Inspector Linked to Militants, Remove Him From Probe into Encounter, Mizoram HM tells Manipur Dy CM

The inspector, the Home Minister has said, is allegedly "hand-in-glove" with the group and even transported several hundred rounds of ammunition for the militants when he conducted a spot visit on May 21.
By Adam Halliday

Aizawl, May 29 : Mizoram Home Minister R Lalzirliana has requested neighbouring Manipur’s Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam Gangmei’s personal intervention to remove a police inspector tasked with investigating the encounter killing of the HPCD militant group’s “Sergeant” H C Malsawmkima.

The inspector, the Home Minister has said, is allegedly “hand-in-glove” with the group and even transported several hundred rounds of ammunition for the militants when he conducted a spot visit on May 21.

Malsawmkima, a Mizoram Police defector, was the main accused in the April 28 ambush on a convoy of three Mizoram MLAs near the inter-state border. The militants killed three policemen and injured six others, including two civilians, in the course of the attack.

Malsawmkima, who decamped with two rifles from an armed police camp in mid 2014 to join the HPCD, was identified as the leader of the group that waylaid the convoy.

R Lalzirliana’s letter details how the Mizoram Police team that shot dead Malsawmkima at Tiaulian (a village near the inter-state border within Manipur) in a pre-dawn operation immediately evacuated the body and evidences from the spot and later filed an FIR at Sakawrdai Police Station in north Mizoram, and how the FIR was transferred to Manipur Police which handed over the probe to Inspector Tlangthanzuala, the officer-in-charge of the Parbung Police Station.

​”​However, a technical input indicated that Inspector Tlangthanzuala is hand-in-glove with HPC(D) and was instigating them to take reprisal action ​Mizoram Police. ​This fact was conveyed to the Manipur Police but with no appropriate positive outcome.

“It was also revealed that approximately 500 rounds of ammunition supposedly sent by HPC(D) leaders from Rengkai to Vangai command via Tipaimukh road on 21st May 2015 was transported by the same officer in a police Gypsy when he proceeded to Tiaulian village in the aforesaid case and was also apparently accompanied by pro-HPC(D) TV cameraman and journalist on a Mahindra Bolero,” R Lalzirliana’s letter said.

​The Mizoram Home Minister requested the Manipur Dy.CM to “kindly look into the matter personally and initiate investigation” against the inspector and appoint someone else for the probe. ​

​​When contacted, Manipur DGP Shahid Ahmad said the Manipur Police was looking into the matter and awaiting final reports about the allegations before taking action against the inspector.

​”We a​re collecting verification into this. It will be verified and necessary action will be taken as per the verification report,” Ahmed said.

Infant Mortality Rate on the rise in Mizoram's Saiha district

Aizawl, May 29 : Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) increased in southernmost Mizoram's Saiha district despite efforts to bring down the IMR by the state health department, Health and Family Welfare department officials said.

The officials, attending the meeting of Saiha District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee chaired by Lok Sabha MP C L Ruala yesterday, revealed 55 infant deaths have already been reported since January till March this year.

It was also reported that the IMR in Saiha was the highest during 2014-2015 among the eight districts of Mizoram.

Experts from the Centre had earlier conducted a study on high INMR in Saiha district and made several suggestions including change of lifestyle, cleaner drinking water and awareness among pregnant women to approach health facilities including health sub-centres.

John Picks up 95pc Stakes at Northeast United

By Marcus Mergulhao

Panaji, May 29 : John Abraham put money where his mouth is by picking up an astronomical 95 per cent of the stakes at NorthEast United FC.

The Bollywood actor has often spoken of his abundant love for the beautiful game and remains as football-obsessed as they come. More proof was provided when it emerged that he had picked up an overwhelming majority of the stakes at the north eastern franchise of the Indian Super League.

"For all practical purposes, you can call me the sole owner," the Bollywood star said while speaking exclusively to TOI at his office in Mumbai on Thursday.

According to sources, the remaining five per cent of the stakes are owned by two of John's friends.

John's stakes at NorthEast United have risen considerably after Shillong Lajong FC decided to offload its holding to focus on grassroot and youth development in the north eastern region.

"Lajong has decided to sell its stake in NorthEast United to focus on our principal vision of building our youth development programs," said Larsing Ming Sawyan, managing director of the club.

The ISL has eight franchisees and barring Delhi Dynamos, all franchisees have either a Bollywood star or star cricketer providing the glamour quotient. In India where celebrity is king, it's no surprise to see the likes of Sachin Tendulkar (Kerala Blasters), Sourav Ganguly (Atletico de Kolkata), MS Dhoni (Chennaiyin FC), Virat Kohli (FC Goa), Hrithik Roshan (Pune City FC) and Ranbir Kapoor (Mumbai City FC) lending their name and face to the franchise.

None of the celebrity owners, though, have invested in the franchise as much as John. Most have anything between four and 12 percent stakes, while Tendulkar enjoys a considerably larger share -- understood to be 40 percent -- at Kerala Blasters.

"We have a great working relationship and Ming is a dear friend. But we parted ways. Ming needed to continue working with Shillong Lajong and I wanted to focus on NorthEast. We are showing support to each other and still source our players from the club but it's a fact we wanted to reach out to a larger north east," said John.

"NorthEast United belongs to the people of the north east. John is only a facilitator. When people talk about clubs and ownerships, my name is taken first with NorthEast and that's only because of my passion for football. It is my responsibility to build a winning team for the future," he said.

NorthEast United finished at the bottom of the eight-team league table in the inaugural edition but have now set out to correct the wrongs with the appointment of Bruno Satin and Simon Festinesi -- representatives of the London based Base Soccer -- as technical directors.

Mizoram ACB Launches Probe Against 16 Govt Engineers in Corruption Case

The FIR says the accused prepared revised estimates of Rs 1,470 lakh for the projects after they had been completed.
Aizawl, May 28 : Mizoram’s Anti-Corruption Bureau has started criminal investigations against 16 government engineers, including three who have since retired, for allegedly swindling Rs 933 lakh while working on two mini-hydel projects over one and a half decades ago.

The FIR says the accused prepared revised estimates of Rs 1,470 lakh for the projects after they had been completed (ostensibly to pay outstanding liabilities but of which Rs 373 lakh remain unaccounted for).

They are also accused of spending almost Rs 129 lakh to “repair vehicles”, making payments for which no vouchers are available, buying material that never reached the site and ordering unnecessary materials.

Tripura Withdraws AFSPA

The Tripura government had withdrawn the eighteen-year-old AFSPA from the state with immediate effect, said chief minister Manik Sarkar.

Agartala, May 28 : The Tripura cabinet withdrew the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in a state cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The present six-month term of the Act will expire this month.

The Tripura government had withdrawn the eighteen-year-old AFSPA from the state with immediate effect, said chief minister Manik Sarkar. "Insurgency has come down to near zero in the state. The demand for withdrawing AFSPA had been made at various levels. But we could not take the final decision as the security forces did not give the final go ahead," the CM added.

AFSPA was promulgated in the state on February 16, 1997, owing to the relentless violence and bloodshed during the period. Following the provisions of the Act, it was reviewed and extended every six months for the past 18 years.

"Recently, when the proposal of further extension of AFSPA came up for discussion to the state government, we sought report from all concerned departments about the law and order and the militant's movement and activities. Finally, the security agencies have agreed to the proposal of withdrawing the Act," the CM said.

Initially, AFSPA was imposed across two-thirds of the police station areas in the state but gradually its extent was reduced with improving situation. At present, AFSPA is operational fully in 26 police station areas and partially in four police station areas out of 74 police stations and 36 outposts of Tripura.

"There has been a qualitative change in the law and order and the state is witnessing development. Peace loving people do not want violence anymore and rather look forward to all round development on a par with the rest of the country. We reviewed and found out that AFSPA need not be extended further," he added.

With the Act's withdrawal, the people of the state can freely travel on National Highway 44 till 12 midnight, which till recently was allowed till 10pm, the CM said.

On the issue of repatriation of Bru inmates from six camps of North Tripura to Mizoram, the CM maintained that the Centre had made several attempts to send them back to their homeland, but the Nagaland government was against it and even a section of self-styled Bru leaders had prevented it.

"The ministry of home affairs has initiated the process, following the apex court's direction, to repatriate them to Mizoram for their secure future. We are hoping that the Mizoram government, too, will cooperate in the process and ensure their safety and other basic needs," he said.

Bangla Set To Export Unused Bandwidth To Northeast India

BSCCL,BSNL to ink deal during Modi's Dhaka visit

Dhaka, May 28 : The state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) is set to initiate the process of exporting its unused bandwidth to north-eastern states of India early next month.

 The BSCCL will sign a deal with an Indian firm to this effect during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh in the first week of next month, said officials.

"We are expecting to ink the deal with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to supply 10 gigabyte per second (gbps) bandwidth during the Indian premier's next week's visit," BSCCL deputy general manager for the international internet gateway (IIG) Abdul Wahab told the FE Wednesday.

 All is now set for inking the deal, he added.

The BSCCL is expecting to fetch around Tk 94.20 million (US$1.2 million) through the export of 10 gbps bandwidth to the Indian firm annually, Mr Wahab said.

The export capacity could be raised to 40gbps, he added.

The cabinet approved last month the signing of the agreement to export the bandwidth to the BSNL for supplying to India's north-eastern states on lease and commercial basis.

"We have plans to export more of our unused bandwidth to augment our earnings," the BSCCL company secretary Abdus Salam Khan told the FE.

Officials said the BSCCL is a member of two international submarine cable consortiums-the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) and the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5).

It has already been working under the SEA-ME-WE 4 which stretches from France to Singapore.

The work on the SEA-ME-WE 5 is underway and it is expected to be finished by 2015.

The SEA-ME-WE 4 is an optical fibre submarine communications cable system that carries telecommunications between Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France.

The cable is approximately 18,800 kilometres long, and provides the primary internet backbone between South East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Europe.

The submarine cable capacity of the BSCCL under its existing SEA-ME-WE 4 is around 200gbps and with the launching of the SEA-ME-WE 5 the capacity would be raised to 1,500gbps.

Currently only 30gbps internet bandwidth is being used in the country and the remaining 170gbps remained unused.

After next week's deal for exporting bandwidth to India, the BSCCL will be looking for bandwidth export to Italy, Mr Khan said.

On completion of preliminary discussion the BSCCL has already sent a proposal to the post and telecommunications division under the Ministry of Post, telecommunications and Information Technology to export around 90 gbps bandwidth to Italia Sparkels at a price of Tk 160 million.

The Italian firm would pay BSCCL Tk 4.80 million per year to bear the maintenance costs of the submarine cable.

Mizoram Govt Asks Home Ministry To Expedite Fund for Bru Repatriation

Aizawl, May 28 : Mizoram government asked the Union Home Ministry to expedite release of fund meant for expenses of the resumption of repatriation of Brus from the six relief camps in neighbouring North Tripura district, scheduled to commence from the first week of June, a senior state home department official today said.

Additional Secretary for Home Lalbiakzama told PTI that a memorandum was handed over by the state government to the visiting Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju during a dinner hosted by the state home minister R Lalzirliana last night.

The memorandum said that the MHA has only released Rs 4.70 crore which would be highly insufficient to meet the expenditure of the proposed repatriation of around 3,500 Bru families.

Mizoram government earlier submitted the Road Map-IV for repatriation of the Brus to the centre and asked for Rs 68 crore for the massive exercise.

The state government also asked the centre to accept 1971 as the cut-off year, as done in Assam, for determination of foreigners coming to Mizoram from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Earlier, the MoS for home denied the allegations that the BJP government at the centre has a soft corner for Buddhist illegal immigrants (Chakmas) while hardening its stance on Muslim illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Rijiju, who came for a two-day visit yesterday left Mizoram today by helicopter after visiting the integrated check post at Kawrpuichhuah, the proposed border trade centre for the Indo-Bangladesh border in south Mizoram's Lunglei district.

Mizoram’s Pain Yet To Heal 29 Years After Peace Accord

By David Lalmalsawma

Author Malsawmi Jacob was in high school when the independence movement in the future state of Mizoram began in 1966. Her father, an army subedar stationed in the hill town of Shillong, now in the state of Meghalaya, predicted at the time that ordinary people would bear the brunt of an armed conflict. He was right.

The two-decade-long revolt by the Mizo National Front (MNF) would lead the Indian government to use war planes against its own citizens for the first time. A “grouping” policy was introduced where villages were burned and civilians herded to guarded centres so that people would be unable to shelter insurgents.

The rebels signed a peace accord with the government in 1986, and Mizoram came to be known as an “island of peace”, unlike neighbouring northeastern states like Manipur, Nagaland and Assam where militant violence continues. But Bangalore-based Jacob, whose new novel “Zorami” tells the story of a girl in the backdrop of the “disturbance”, said for many people who suffered during the insurgency, the pain remains.

Sixty-two-year-old Jacob, perhaps the only Mizo author to have published a novel in English, spoke about why she decided to write about the “ram buai” (disturbance in the land), and why she thinks the decision of the Mizo rebels to take up arms was a mistake.

Q: Why did you decide to write a novel with the insurgency as a backdrop?
A: We were staying in Guwahati in 2002, where I used to contribute to regional news publications. Mizoram was often described as an “island of peace”. I thought about the hardships we (Mizos) went through, and I started wondering how the people from that period are coping emotionally. I wanted to find out.
So in 2004, I travelled to places like Aizawl and Lunglei (towns in Mizoram) and interviewed people who were somehow involved with the insurgency. I asked them to describe their experiences during that period. And it was worse than what I thought. The Mizo people’s hearts have still not healed… I wanted to take a literary approach in describing what I discovered. So I started attempting to turn it into a novel.

Q: Who did you talk to during your research?
A: Those who experienced the disturbance. Some people are well known like Pu James Dokhuma and Rev. LN Ralte. They were part of those who started the peace process so they were well known. I also talked to my own relatives, some of whom have spent time in jail. And some others I met at random in places of gathering, like at a mourner’s house (in Mizo society, whenever someone dies, relatives and people in the society gather for days to mourn) where I asked people to share their experiences. I also read a few books where people documented their experience.

Q: How much truth is there in the events that you described in the book?
A: The backbone is based on real incidents. I just embellished it with my imagination.

Q: You said people are still hurting?
A: Our suffering was so much. Atrocities committed were so much that we still can’t forget it, and our heart still aches. There are a few, the more hardcore ones, who are still talking about whether we should renew the fight for independence.

Q: Did you personally experience the insurgency period?
A: I didn’t because we were outside the state. I was in high school when the disturbance started. My father used to lament about it and often said the people will suffer because of the uprising.

Q: Apart from some short story books and poems, I haven’t seen any novel written by a Mizo author in English. What do you think is the state of Mizo literature?
A: I think there still isn’t enough depth when it comes to Mizo literature. We still have some way to go. It’s beginning to look good – book releases have increased, and writers are also increasing, but we need to improve the quality of work.

Q: Do you think the armed uprising was necessary?
A: My personal opinion is violence should not have been used at all. We were unhappy with the Indian government, the Assam government (present-day Mizoram was then a district of Assam), and it was necessary to show it. But taking up arms was a big mistake because we suffered so much. And for the people who lost their fathers and mothers, who lost their children, no outcome really mattered. We should have fought with peaceful means, according to me.

Q: Was the protagonist Zorami used as a metaphor for the Mizos – their suffering and the influence of the church and spirituality in their culture?
A: Yes, I used the name Zorami deliberately to describe the Mizo people. I also used her as a symbol. (“Zoram” is a term of endearment used to describe Mizoram; “i” denotes the name is that of a female)

Like her, we suffered because of the disturbance, but we can be healed through God – not symbolic worshipping at church etc but achieving peace through an individual discovery of God. That’s what I wanted to show, and what I believe in.