AIZAWL: A group of people numbering about 50 has set six vehicles carrying consignments of areca nuts on fire in western Mizoram‘s Mamit district near Tripura border, a senior police officer said on Sunday.
The incident occurred early Saturday near Putarte river between Zamuang and Zawlnuam villages on the National Highway-108 when the vehicles were heading towards Kanhmun on the Mizoram-Tripura border, Mamit district Superintendent of Police Lalthangpui Pulamte said.
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She said that the dried areca nuts were believed to be smuggled from Myanmar.
The people intercepted the vehicles between 4 am and 5 am and after the drivers were told to unload their consignments, the vehicles were parked on the roadside and burned along with the consignments around 6:30 am, she said.
The SP said that a case has been registered at Kanhmun police station in Mizoram and a massive investigation is on.
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No person or group claimed responsibility and no one has been arrested till now, she said.
She added that the possible cause of the incident is not yet known.
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The incident happened about a month after Hachhek Bial Kuhva Chingtu Pawl (HBKCP), an areca nut growers’ society in Mamit’s Hachhek assembly constituency of Mizoram, warned that vehicles carrying smuggled Burmese areca nuts should not pass through the area and that the society will hold no responsibility in the event of any untoward incident to such consignments.
The HBKCP had in October staged agitation demanding the state government to ensure that locally grown areca nuts are transported and sold in Assam.
The areca nut growers alleged that they could not transport and sell their products to Assam due to the crackdown on Burmese area nuts launched by the neighbouring state.
The HBKCP general secretary Lalremruata Khiangte claimed that none of their members were involved in Saturday’s incident.
“People in the Hachhek area are very disappointed because of smuggled Burmese areca nuts, which bacly affect their markets. Saturday’s incident might have been committed by some angry mob,” he said
5 pickup trucks and a heavy truck were burnt in the incident, he said.
Apart from Burmese areca nuts, the consignment also included opium seeds and foreign cigarettes, he added.
Last week, Mizoram Rajya Sabha member K. Vanlalvena raised the areca nut issue in the Parliament saying the restriction imposed by Assam has adversely affected areca nut farmers and traders in Mizoram and Jampui Hills of Tripura.