Two teenage boys from Mizoram’s Zokhawthar village have returned home after being held captive nearly a week by a Myanmar militia, an Assam Rifles officer said on Sunday.The two boys both aged 16 and 15 years were abducted by Hualngoram unit of Chin Defence Force (CDF), one of several militias fighting the military junta in Myanmar, on September 1 from Rih Dil lake, a tourist spot in Myanmar near the Indian border, the officer said. They were released by the CDF in the evening of September 6, she said. Earlier, the incident had sparked tension in Zokhawthar area and the locals had demanded the immediate release of the two boys, according to Zokhawthar village council president Lalmuanpuia. The local peoplw had also reminded the Chin forces how the Mizos welcomed and sheltered their people.
The Assam Rifles officer said that a group of five boys from Zokhawthar rode out on two Chinese-made Kebo bikes to Rih Dil lake on September 1. On reaching there, they were stopped by cadres of CDF Hualngoram, who thrashed them because of a previous argument or scuffle they had with some other boys from Zokhawthar, she said. Three of the five managed to escape and return to India while the two were held hostage by the CDF, she said. “The two boys were kept in the Rih Dil area for two days and then transferred to the Liando Camp in Seik village of Myanmar on September 3, 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, she said. The militia may have abducted and tortured the two boys as a show of authority or dominance in the border area and also to extended its say in affairs of border areas by dominated village council leaders and other local leaders in the area, the officer said. She added that the CDF now collect tax on all goods, to and from India, under the protection of the Chin National Army (CNA), a Chin state-based armed group.
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