Image used for representation purpose.
| Photo Credit: KSL

Two teenage boys from Mizoram abducted by the Hualngoram faction of the Chin Defence Force (CDF), one of several militias fighting the military junta in Myanmar, were released after almost a week on September 6.

They were released in the evening, an Assam Rifles officer in the State’s capital Aizawl said on Saturday (September 7, 2024). The paramilitary force guards the India-Myanmar border.

“The two boys – one 15 years and the other 16 – said they were among five friends who went across the border to Rih Dil Lake, a popular picnic or Sunday outing spot for people in Zokhawthar and adjoining areas of Mizoram’s Champhai district,” the officer said.

All five are residents of Zokhawthar, a border trade centre that has not been affected much by the civil war in Myanmar since the army coup in the country in February 2021.

The five rode out on two Chinese-made Kenbo bikes on September 1. They were stopped by a few CDF (Hualngoram) cadres and thrashed because of a previous argument or scuffle they had with some other boys from Zokhawthar.

Three of the five managed to escape and return to India while the two were held hostage by the CDF (Hualngoram). “They were kept in the Rih Dil area for two days and transferred to the Liando Camp in Seik village of Myanmar, where they were kept in a jail and tortured,” the officer said.

“Their heads were shaved off, cigarette butts were used on their heads and bodies, and the front teeth of one of the boys were also extracted. The militia may have tortured the two boys as a show of dominance in the affairs of the border,” the officer said.

At present, the “police” of the CDF collect tax on all goods, to and from India, under the protection of the Chin National Army, a larger extremist group.

Zokhawthar locals had expressed anguish over the abduction of the two teens and reminded the Chin forces how the Mizos welcomed and sheltered their people. The dominant Mizos of Mizoram and the Chins of Myanmar are ethnically related.