"The Mizo traders should stop lending trade licences to the non-Mizos," said the MMA. Not only that, the MMA also asked the owners Mizos to stop housing non-Mizo traders for business purposes. The Mizoram Merchant Association has dispatched letters in this connection signed by its president PC Laldinthara to those people leasing out their properties to the non-Mizos for trading.
Meanwhile, the Mizoram Merchant Association said, about 80 percent of cement and iron rod dealers in Aizawl town area are non-Mizo traders who are using the trade licences of the Mizos. The MMA also said, about 27 grocery shops and 35 others in Aizawl are run by non-Mizos in the name of the indigenous persons.
Meanwhile, in unrelated news, the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), an influential students' body in Mizoram said that it is really embarassing to hear from the National Commision for Minority (NCM) vice chairman H.T Sangliana terming that the Brus and the Chakmas are also Mizos. MZP reacted to this and said, "Although the Brus (Tuikuks) and the Chakmas may also be Mongolian descendants, they are not necessarily Mizos; and they cannot, in any way, be accepted as Mizo-Chakmas and Mizo-Brus.
MZP, in a press communique, stated that Tuikuks (Brus), Chakmas and Mizos do not belong to the same family. The students' body wants this to be acknowledged by H T Sangliana. H T Sangliana, the former BJP MP from Karnataka is a Mizo.
Meanwhile, the Mizo Zirlai Pawl asks whether H T Sangliana knows the false accusations made by the Brus on the Mizos by reporting that the Mizos burnt down their temples and raped their girls. "We ask HT Sangliana whether he has forgotten that his inclusion in the Minority Commission is because he is a Christian," the MZP asks.
MZP said that if H T Sangliana is to go with his personal opinion regardless of the rightful claims of the Mizos, they will regard his visit of Mizoram as useless. While he works for the benefits of the Brus, Chakmas and Gorkhas, he should also think about his fellow Mizos and Christians, expressed the MZP.