A source from Falam township said that a private hotel called ‘Moon’ in Balai block, had been searched by local policemen at the unusual time of midnight, recently.

“The local policemen came and checked the hotel at midnight and they asked all the guests where they came from, what they were doing, and whether they had identity cards,” a local from Falam township said.

Last year hotels in Falam Township were checked once a week or once in two weeks by the police. However, from October this year the hotels are being checked every night.

Although they cannot figure out the exact reason for the checking of hotels in Falam Township, the locals believe that the authorities want money from the traders.

There are three hotels in Falam Township, two of which— Taungzalat and HlurHmung are owned by the government. The third one is a private hotel, which in earlier years bore the brunt of the checking by the police. The other two state-owned hotels had been exempted from such checking.

In the private hotel most of the guests are from rural areas as well as a few government servants, who had come to stay in Falam for a while.

Checking of hotels is also being done by the local authorities in Hakha, the capital of Chin state.