'It is indeed shocking to find people in some parts of the state packing the dead body of a person who has died of HIV/AIDS with polythene sheets or bags during burials,' Sawmtea, president of the Mizoram People Living with HIV/AIDS Society, told IANS.

With a little under one million people and bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, Mizoram is one of the high risk states with an estimated 1,639 people declared HIV-positive and another 167 suffering from various AIDS-related illnesses.

'There were some reports in the past, but now no such things are taking place here with the level of awareness about HIV/AIDS increasing,' said K. Ropari, head of the Mizoram AIDS Control Society.

'Such is the reaction that that when a person dies of HIV/AIDS, we invariably find attendance of the locals in the cemeteries very less compared to a person who died of some other ailments,' Sawmtea said.

The influential church, a majority of the Christians in Mizoram are Presbyterians, says it would take up steps to prevent showing disregard to a dead man just because he passed away after contracting HIV/AIDS.

'The church is actively involved in spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS. I have heard people burying a dead person packed in polythene bags although I have never seen it myself,' Reverend Rosiam, senior executive secretary of the Mizoram Presbyterian Synod, told IANS.

'HIV is much harder to contract than hepatitis B although such victims were given normal burials,' Vanlalmuan, president of the Positive Network of Mizoram, said.

The plight of HIV infected people has become all the more serious with some local vigilante groups taking law into their hands to punish drug addicts and traffickers leading to at least half-a-dozen deaths in the past one year.

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