‘Have asked MHA to set up Mizo Territorial Army’: Mizoram CM tells NCB chief

AIZAWL: Mizoram chief minister Lalduhoma on Tuesday said he has urged the Union home ministry to help raise a Mizo Territorial Army to fight drug trafficking along the India-Myanmar border.

In a statement issued after the chief minister’s meeting with a visiting team of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials led by director general Anurag Garg in Aizawl, the chief minister expressed concern over the growing volume of narcotics being smuggled through Mizoram.

“We need more manpower and better policing infrastructure along the international border,” Lalduhoma said, according to the statement. “I have urged the Ministry of Home Affairs to help us raise a Mizo Territorial Army which will help us fend off the narcotics challenge.”

Lalduhoma also requested the NCB chief to offer technical inputs and suggestions to step up the state’s anti-narcotics efforts.

The NCB director general said there was an urgent need to establish an NCB zonal office in Mizoram to strengthen coordination and resource sharing.

“A dedicated zonal office will allow us to share manpower and intelligence more efficiently,” Garg said at the meeting.

According to Mizoram’s Excise & Narcotics Department, drug trafficking from Myanmar has been on the increase. In Mizoram, enforcement agencies seized 154.17 kg of methamphetamine in 2023, which shot up to 627.74 kg in 2024. Heroin seizures also rose from 68.05 kg in 2023 to 80.81 kg in 2024.

To be sure, Lalduhoma first announced the proposal to raise the Mizo Territorial Army to improve security along the border with Myanmar in October 2024 after meeting defence minister Rajnath Singh.