GUWAHATI: Why did the duo caught in Chennai come all the way to Assam to
buy a pistol?
Is it freely available here? Not really, but gunrunning
thrives in Nagaland and Mizoram. In the North East, there are two major
gunrunning routes from Myanmar. One is through Nagaland and the other is
through Mizoram.
The rebel groups on ceasefire mode run the show in
Nagaland while the dealers in Mizoram are invariably Chin migrants from
Myanmar.
The arms market is more organised and on a larger scale in
Dimapur district of Nagaland.
Gunrunners from Mizoram were once active
in Assam’s erstwhile North Cachar Hills (now Dima Hasao) district when
the now-disbanded extremist group Dima Halam Daogah unleashed a reign of
terror a few years ago.