Smuggled pigs shot dead

Aizawl, June 11 (UNI) As many as 19 smuggled pigs were killed at Mizoram's Champhai near Indo-Myanmar border on Saturday.

The pigs, smuggled from Myanmar, had been seized by Khawzawl police near Champhai a day earlier.

The alleged smuggler Lalhmangaiha(47) was also arrested and appeared before the court on Saturday.

Sources said the Khawzawl police had seized seven smuggled pigs on the night of June 3.

Earlier, police had seized a number of pigs and poultry smuggled from Myanmar, and deported them back.

''We have warned that we will kill the pigs the next time we catch them since it is troublesome to send them back,'' an official from Champhai sai.

According to sources, pigs and poultry were being smuggled through alternative routes bypassing check-gates. Sometimes the smugglers took the longer but safer route and entered Aizawl from the Lunglei side.

Due to insufficient staff to monitor the international borders 24 hours, pigs and poultry products still managed to enter Mizoram despite banning on these products after alert on bird flu in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

UNI