Cult leader passes away in Mizoram

Lalzawna, a cult leader who established the 'Church of God' in Mizoram, today died due to pneumonia at a private hospital here, hospital sources said.

He was 68.

Lalzawna is survived by wife Lalhmangaihzuali and a two-year-old son Ephraim Lalramzawnchhuaha.

Born on January 1, 1948, Lalzawna joined the underground Mizo National Front (MNF) movement in 1966 when the MNF began armed insurrection for a sovereign Mizoram and was in the underground capital headquarters in Arakan in 1971.

He claimed to have received a vision from God while in Arakan and advocated 'redemption of the flesh' from 1978 and resurfaced in 1979 to spread his 'vision' across Mizoram.
 

He settled at the Mizoram-Myanmar border Tlangsam village in Champhai district since 1984 and predicted that a huge stone from the east would hit Mizoram to cause massive disaster.

Many believers flocked around him and settled at Tlangsam village.

He established a cult and a church of his own at Tlangsam and called it 'Pathian Kohhran' or the 'Church of God' which he headed till his demise.