Changing drug route to Mizoram : Other side of May 3, 2023
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 28, 2025 -

Manipur no longer the preferred drug route ever since violence erupted in the evening of May 3, 2023 and this should say so many things.

Only thing is Delhi does not appear ready to accept the points that have been laid down in black and white.

It was with a reason why the then BJP led Government at Imphal repeatedly pointed to the War on Drugs campaign as one of the primary factors for the Kuki militants to train their guns on the Meitei community for here is a case of a multi-million dollar narcotics trade.

News of huge consignments of drugs seized in different parts of Manipur and drugs seized in other parts of the country but after having passed through Manipur were staple news in all the Imphal based newspapers but this is no longer the case after the place went up in flames in the evening of May 3, 2023.

Connect the dots, cross the Ts and dot the Is and one can definitely somehow understand the claim of the Government that the War on Drugs campaign and the crackdown on drugs and poppy plantations had rubbed many of the influential, moneyed Kuki-Chin power players the wrong way and this can be seen from the manner in which the systematic, well-coordinated violence against Manipur was initiated at Churachandpur and Torbung on May 3, 2023.

No wonder many of those arrested while smuggling drugs across the border are Myanmarese and the very fact that the Mizoram Government has started cracking the whip against some of the refugees from across the border should tell a meaningful tale.

Again it should tell something significant that many in Mizoram have begun to see the Myanmarese refugees as threatening the security of the land and the Mizo people.

It is this very concern which Phungyar Assembly Constituency MLA Leishiyo Keishing had vocalised in the Assembly some time back, especially on how the refugees from across the border had begun to take a toll on resources at the Tangkhul villages bordering Myanmar.

Take the mass poppy plantations, the drug trafficking as well as the arms and fire power of the Kuki militants into consideration and view this against the term 'narco-terrorists' and things should be clear.

Geo-politics is the reason why Delhi has refused to accept the facts and say it as it actually is.

While India's focus is on the western front, especially after the terror attack at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir some time back, it should not be forgotten that forces from across the eastern border have also been playing havoc with the lives of the people since the evening of May 3, 2023 with over 250 people killed and thousands still languishing in different relief centres spread across the length and breadth of Manipur.

Call them out, is the stand of Manipur.

It was with a reason why the then BJP led Government launched the War on Drugs campaign and it was along this line that large swathes of poppy cultivation were razed to the ground.

Many arrests were made, but the utter failure of the Government to go beyond just arresting the drug Carriers is what stood out and this is what The Sangai Express had questioned and questioned.

In short the Government just appeared satisfied with razing some poppy plantations to the ground, while refusing to go deeper into the network, such as who procured the harvested poppy plants.

Who financed the plantation? Who are the people behind the marketing?

Pulling up some tillers of the soil and a village chief or two would not have taken the Government any step closer to cracking the drug nexus.

These are the points which The Sangai Express had raised many times and till date no answer has been forthcoming.

For instance it was some time back that some policemen were arrested near Pallel with a huge contraband of drugs running into crores of rupees.

It was back then that The Sangai Express had asserted that the Government should dig deeper and try to find out who are the big fishes who got the rogue policemen into their payroll.

Nothing has been heard since then and there are myriad other instances where the Government could have done much more.

Now with Manipur under a state of siege since May 3, 2023, the drug route has changed to Mizoram, but Manipur cannot afford to rest easy for this could just be the lull.