AIZAWL: It was business as usual in Aizawl on Wednesday after a week-long celebration of Christmas and New Year, which turned out to be relatively peaceful compared to the previous years.
New Year celebrations continued till Tuesday with many churches in Aizawl and elsewhere throwing community feast and there was thin attendance in government offices. But on Wednesday, life returned to normalcy as shops opened and there was normal attendance at government offices.
Police said the just-concluded Christmas and New Year festival was peaceful, and police stations across the state registered lesser criminal cases compared to the previous years. Except for a vehicular accident that claimed one live, there was no road accidents during the festival, police added.
During the period from December 24 to 31, Aizawl police station registered 31 cases, involving violations of the Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act, vehicular theft, attempt to burglary among other things.
The three other police stations in the city also registered significantly lesser criminal cases.
For the third consecutive year, Mizoram has witnessed Christmas and New Year festival without any noise of fireworks and crackers thanks to round-the-clock surveillance maintained by law enforcement agencies with the help of local NGOs.
Christmas has also brought oneness as people belonging to different faiths and diverse Christian sects in the Christian-dominated state joined hands to celebrate the Festival of Peace.
The small Hindu community in Aizawl also joined hands with their Christian brethren in prayer at the Hindustan Club of Aizawl at Zarkawt here and gifted Christmas presents to the needy. “We have been following this tradition of celebrating Christmas with our Christian brethren and giving out Christmas presents since long back,” Hindustan Club president and prinical legal adviser to the Mizoram Government, P Charaborty said.
Similarly, the Muslims also held prayer meeting and worship service at the Aizawl Mosque. (UNI)