Hill Voice, 12 July 2025, Special Correspondent: In January 2025, a large cache of arms and ammunition was seized along with five individuals by the Mizoram Police in the Indian state of Mizoram. Evidence has now emerged linking the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), an anti-CHT Accord group, to the trafficking of those arms and ammunition.

On Friday (11 July), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s counter-terrorism law enforcement agency, submitted a chargesheet to a court in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, mentioning the involvement of the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) in the arms trafficking case.The five individuals arrested by the Mizoram Police and named in the NIA chargesheet are: Lalbiakchunga alias Divid alias David, Laltawmcheuva alias Thawma, Malsawma alias Malsawma Loncheu, Rualliansanga alias Sanga and Alok Bikash Chakma.

According to reports, the chargesheet states that two months after the incident, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case and unravelled a criminal conspiracy by the accused to supply prohibited arms and ammunition to armed cadres of the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), a militant outfit based in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh.

It is to be noted that the case was originally filed by the Mizoram Police on 15 January 2025. Prior to that, the police had arrested the five individuals from Saithah village in Mamit district of Mizoram, along with 6 AK-47 rifles, 13 magazines, and 10,050 rounds of ammunition. Among those arrested, Alok Bikash Chakma has been identified as a known arms trafficking agent of the UPDF.