Aizawl, Oct. 15: Mizoram today bade a tearful farewell to its most beloved singer and composer Lalsangzuali Sailo, who died at the Greenwood Hospital at 11.10 am yesterday. The 57-year-old singer was suffering from an aneurysm in a blood vessel in her brain.

She was awarded the Padmashree in 1998 by President K.R. Narayanan for her contribution to the fields of music, literature and social work. Popularly known as the Nightingale of Mizoram, she was named the Woman of the Year in 1975. Apart from composing 360 songs in various genres such as love songs, folk songs, Gospel songs and children’s songs, she has also written 19 books of which her last, titled Tlawm Ve Lo Lalnu Ropuiliani, was selected as the Book of the Year by the Mizo Academy of Letters in 1999.

Sailo was the first among the Mizo singers to release an audio album in 1976 and went on to release 26 albums during her lifetime. She was very popular in Canada during the late 1970s.

A poll conducted by a local magazine awarded her the Singer of the Century award in 2000.

Illegal settlers

The Young Mizo Association’s (YMA) Lunglei unit will conduct a search for foreigners who are residing illegally in the district. The decision was taken at a meeting in this southern district headquarters yesterday.

The Lunglei YMA had conducted an operation on September 23 to ferret out foreigners staying in the area illegally. Despite protests from US-based Chin Human Rights Organisation, it has decided to conduct the operations again.

The source said the meeting, while reviewing the last operation against foreigners, decided to ignore the complaint made by the rights organisations since the allegations were “all baseless”. As the drive against foreigners and non-ILP (inner line permit) holders had shown good results, it was decided to conduct the drive again.