The Chinese fund and support Myanmar’s military junta. The junta in turn hire NSCN (IM) and ZRA to fight on their behalf and provide protection to poppy fields
Athisa Koso is in her 50s and has a ready smile and watchful eyes. Mother to nine, her hands are full but she — like many other mothers in some states in the northeast region — has learnt to constantly watch her children closely in silence, looking for changes in behaviour, which would give her a clue as to whether they were in “bad company”.
Ms Koso says she had a dream one night. “In the dream, I saw my son taking number 4,” she told
“Number 4” is the street name for heroin in Nagaland’s Dimapur city.
Ms Koso says she began to watch her son and his friends, and found he would hang out with people older than him and even followed them a few times. Over time her suspicions were confirmed. She decided to take matters into her own hands.
“I insisted that he had to be home for dinner with the family and for evening prayers,” she says. “With a mother’s love, I made him tell me the truth and then sent him to a rehabilitation centre for deaddiction.”
Her son has returned home now and is rid of the drug habit. But she continues to watch over him like a hawk.
Every home in this middle class neighbourhood has a drug user, she tells NDTV.
“Every family here is suffering. There is an emotional burden on everyone, but also a financial one.”
This is the biggest impact of China’s debilitating ‘Three Warfares’ strategy – pumping drugs into India’s northeast to weaken and destroy the fabric of society.
There are countless rehabilitation centres in some of the states in the northeast which are most affected by drug abuse. Children are hooked to a variety of easily available drugs by the time they reach Class 7, data shows.
The source of these drugs?
Armed insurgent groups like the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), or NSCN (IM), and the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA), which bring drugs from Myanmar and China for sale in India.
After the outbreak of ethnic violence in Manipur in May 2023 and the subsequent high security in the state, the point of entry of drugs has shifted from the border trading town Moreh in Manipur to neighbouring Mizoram.
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