Aizawl, Nov 4: With the unabated smuggling of drugs and many other contrabands from Myanmar continued, the Assam Rifles and the Custom officials in a joint operation seized 190 cases of foreign origin cigarettes worth Rs 2.47 crore from eastern Mizoram’s Champhai district, a hotspot of illegal trade from Myanmar.
Assam Rifles officials on Thursday said that the paramilitary troopers of 23 Sector accompanied by Assam Rifles officials recovered the foreign origin cigarette on Wednesday night from an abandoned place at New Zotlang of Champhai district, adjoining Myanmar.
The seized items were handed over to the Customs department, Champhai to undertake further legal proceedings.
Ongoing smuggling of drugs and foreign origin cigarettes is a major cause of concern for the state of Mizoram, especially along the India-Myanmar border, an Assam Rifles statement said.
The Mizoram-based International Trade Initiative Forum (ITIF) recently urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mizoram Governor to resume trade with Myanmar through the Zokhawthar border point.
ITIF President P.C. Lawmkunga, a retired IAS officer who served as Manipur’s Chief Secretary, said “in the absence of the formal and regular official border trade between India and Myanmar, not only is smuggling and illegal trade going on unchecked but the government is losing crores of rupees in revenue”.
