The Hindu : Blasts rock Mizoram on eve of elections

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 20, 2003

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Blasts rock Mizoram on eve of elections

By Barun Das Gupta

AIZAWL NOV. 19. Even as the State Government stepped up security measures for tomorrow's Assembly polls, Mizoram was rocked by seven powerful bomb blasts last night, including one in the heart of Aizawl, near the Raj Bhavan. However, there was no loss of life or property.

Meanwhile, three candidates were kidnapped today. According to police, the candidates — H. Lalpanpuia of the Mizoram People's Conference, Ngurdingliana of the Congress and Vaninmawla of the Mizoram National Front — were picked up at gunpoint from the Suangpuilawn constituency by suspected HMAR militants in Aizawl.

The Mizoram SP, Hrangchal, said that night patrolling would begin all over the State from tonight. Security around Raj Bhavan had been stepped up.

He said the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) was suspected to be behind the blasts but the motive was not very clear. The MZP is not a militant organisation but a student body.

The Chief Electoral Officer, Lalmalsawma, said 57 polling booths in Champhai, Serchip, Lunglei, Saiha, Mamit and Lawngtlai districts, most of which were located along the border with Bangladesh and Myanmar, had been identified as "sensitive".

In addition to the State police, two battalions of State Armed Police and two battalions of India Reserve Police (IRP) and 15 companies of the Border Security Force would be deployed in the "sensitive" polling booths and in eight district headquarters for guarding the strong rooms where electronic voting machines (EVMs) would be kept.

Arrangements have been made to enable the 4,266 Bru voters, who were forced to flee to Tripura, to cast their votes.

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