Group fleeing Mizoram for China fearing UID returns

The group, including four minors and seven women, are all members of a religious sect that lives in Tlangsam village near the eastern town of Champhai close to the border with Myanmar.

The group, including four minors and seven women, are all members of a religious sect that lives in Tlangsam village near the eastern town of Champhai close to the border with Myanmar.

Eighteen people from four families who undertook a journey on foot to China from Mizoram to escape the UID program and what they believed to be an impending darkness waiting to befall the state returned home on Wednesday after spending more than two and a half months in captivity in Myanmar.

The group, including four minors and seven women, are all members of a religious sect that lives in Tlangsam village near the eastern town of Champhai close to the border with Myanmar.

An official from Champhai who was part of the delegation that received the group at the border crossing on Wednesday said they admitted to having been afraid of the Indian government’s Unique Identification project, which they interpret as the number of the anti-christ prophesied in Christian theology.

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They also admitted to having undertaken the journey to escape a blanket of darkness that has in recent years been prophesied to befall Mizoram by some self styled modern day prophets, the official said.

The group was however caught and detained by the Myanmar government at Tamu near Tahan in Myanmar’s Sagaing Division, where one among them passed away.

Mizos who live in the region, including the late MLA of Tamu D Thangliana and leaders of the Mizo Thalai Pawl (youth group), intervened on their behalf and tried to get them released.

The efforts eventually paid off and the group was finally released and MTP leaders on Tuesday afternoon brought them to Tahan and from there towards Mizoram.

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The group was handed over to a delegation led by Champhai district Deputy Commissioner H Lalengmawia at Zokhawthar, a border village.

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