Aizawl:
Around 3,000 people with 'superstitious belief' could not be enumerated during the ongoing Census in Christian-dominated Mizoram as they failed to cooperate with the authorities, official sources have said.
As the deadline ended on Wednesday, the sources said census officials would seek an extension from the state government to cover them.
Reports from deputy commissioners, designated as Principal Census Officers, of all the eight districts said while a few of them relented, the majority refused to enroll themselves saying they were ready to face any punitive action.
These people declared they had no objection to being enrolled in the census, but refused to be marked with a Unique ID for fear of the Biblical 'Beast' or the Devil, the sources said.
The fear of being identified with the 'number of the beast' stems from the Bible's Revelation chapter 13 Verse 17 which says "...and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name."
The Unique Identification Authority of India stipulates that no one can buy or sell property without the UID card among its other key uses.