28 refugees flee CHT violence, seek refuge in Mizoram
Aizawl: Fleeing military offensive, at least 28 refugees, including 16 children, from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have crossed the Indo-Bangladesh border and entered southernmost Mizoram's Lawngtlai district recently, an official in the Lawngtlai deputy commissioner office said.
The refugees, comprising five families from Kersetlang and Pankhiang villages in Bandarban district, one of the three hill districts of Bangladesh, entered Hruitezawl village in Lawngtlai district on January 7 after walking in the jungle near the Mizoram border, he said.
From Hruitezawl, the Bangladeshi nationals, who belonged to the Bawm clan of ethnic Mizos, were taken by the Assam Rifles to their camp in nearby Tuithumhnar village where they are being provided with food and shelter by the paramilitary force, he said.
Following information from the Assam Rifles, the district administration communicated the matter to the state home department, which instructed both the district administration and Assam Rifles not to push back but provide shelter to the refugees on humanitarian ground, the official said.
After talks among home officials, district administration and Assam Rifles, the Bangladeshi refugees were handed over to the village council leaders of Tuithumhnar on Thursday night by the Assam Rifles, he said.
They will be shifted from Tuithumhnar to Hruitezawl on Friday, he said.
The Bangladeshi refugees consist of eight adult males, four females and 16 children aged between 1 and 17 years, the official said.
Till December last year there have already been 2,014 refugees from Bangladesh taking shelter in Lawngtlai district, which shares borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh, officials said.
The district also currently hosts 5,922 Myanmar refugees and 84 internally displaced people from Manipur.
The Bangladeshi nationals began entering Mizoram in November, 2022 and took shelter in Lawngtlai district due to the alleged military offensive by Bangladeshi army against Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA), an ethnic insurgent group fighting for a separate state.
Ruling Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) MLA Lalmuanpuia Punte, who is a political advisor to the chief minister, said that the state government is planning to relocate and bring the Bangladeshi refugees together in four villages within Lawngtlai district close to the Bangladesh border rather than be scattered in different villages.
Punte, who headed a study committee on relocation of displaced people, said that the relocation plan was proposed for administrative convenience, to facilitate humanitarian assistance and to allow the Bangladeshi nationals to support and earn living for themselves.