AIZAWL: The sleepy Aizawl woke up to a bright sunny morning. For most of the residents, it was just another hectic Saturday, and no one had suspected the terrible incident that would happen later on the day, which for some still remains fresh as though it occurred just yesterday.

“It was around 11:00 am when two jet fighters appeared from nowhere and circled above Aizawl. A few minutes later, heavy machine guns were fired from the planes and many houses went up in flames,” 67-year-old Rama recollected the aerial attacks on Aizawl on March 5, 1966.

On March 6, the attack intensified, and incendiary bombs were dropped, killing innocents and completely destroyed the four largest areas of the city: Republic Veng, Hmeichhe Veng, Dawrpui Veng and Chhinga Veng.

People left their homes and fled into the jungles. The MNA melted away into surrounding gorges, forests and hills, to camps in Burma and the then East Pakistan.

The bombardment of Aizawl, the first and only aerial attacks the Indian government had used against its own territory, was Indira Gandhi’s panic response to the armed rebellion carried out against India by the Mizo National Front under the dynamic leadership of Laldenga.

The iron-hearted Indira Gandhi was caught off guard when the poorly-trained MNF guerrillas captured all security forces headquarters in Mizoram, except for the Assam Rifles’ Quarterguards, which too was under siege, in the midnight of February 28, 1966.

According to former MNF leaders, about 20,000 Mizo youth, including a large number of fresh graduates from Shillong St. Anthony’s and other reputed colleges who had a bright future, joined the MNF.

“By March 2, the MNA had overrun the Aizawl treasury and laid siege to the headquarters of the Assam Rifles in Aizawl,” said Rama, who too was one of the MNF volunteers.

Rama, with a sten-gun he did not how to fire, was standing guard at Durtlang hilltop on the northern fringes overlooking Aizawl town on that morning.

Many other MNF volunteers, perhaps majority of them, were as poorly trained as Ramga. Now, the big question which remains unanswered till today is why Indira Gandhi was so panicked to the extent of using her mighty air force to quell the Mizo uprising.

“The Indian government is yet to come out with reasonable answer as to why it used the air force to attack who it considered its own people,” said Mizo historian Dr. J V Hluna, who has authored a book on the infamous Aizawl bombardment.

Surprisingly, the Mizo National Front was outlawed only later in 1968.

Dr. J V Hluna, in his book ‘Debates on Mizo Problems on Insurgencies’, recounted that in the aftermath of the Aizawl air raids, two MLAs of Assam, Stanley DD Nichols Roy and Hoover H Hynniewta, came to Mizoram (then Mizo district under Assam) and were totally shocked by what they saw. Later in April, Nichols Roy moved a motion in the Assam House on the Aizawl air attack.

“The use of excessive air force for taking Aijal (the former name of Aizawl) was excessive because you cannot pinpoint from the air who is loyal and who is not loyal, who is an MNF and who is somebody pledging allegiance to the Mizo Union, the ruling party in the Mizo district,” Roy said in the Assam assembly house.

A hot debate over the Mizo issue continued in the House. Nichol Roy even referred to a statement made by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi published in the Hindustan Standard on March 9, 1966 where the PM, answering a foreign correspondent, claimed that the air force was “deployed to drop men and supplies.”

“Nichols Roy stated that whether the shells of bombs, which had been dropped in Aijal, be sent to Delhi to ask the Prime Minister, ‘How do you cook this ration? If these are supplies, please tell us how you cook these things’?”, J V Hluna said.

Strongly condemning the use of air force, the other MLA Hynniewta produced photographs of one unexploded bomb and some fragments of exploded bombs as proof of the Aizawl air attack, which was strongly denied by the Government of India.

Since 2008, Mizo Zirlai Pawl, Mizoram’s apex students’ body, observes March 5 as Zoram Ni.

“We have been observing this day to instill a sense of patriotism among younger generations. We must not forget the saddest day in our history,” said MZP president Lalhmachhuana.

This year, the day was observed with a seminar where two resource persons present papers.