28 more Bangladeshis flee to Mizoram in fresh seeking refuge

Aizawl: Fleeing a military offensive, at least 28 people including 16 children from Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh have taken refuge in Mizoram, an official of Lawngtlai district said on Friday.

Those people, comprising five families from Kersetlang and Pankhiang villages in Bandarban district, one of the three hill districts of Bangladesh, walked into Hruitezawl village in Lawngtlai district on January 7 after crossing a jungle near the Mizoram border, he said.

From Hruitezawl, the Bangladesh nationals, who belonged to the Bawm clan of ethnic Mizos, were taken by the Assam Rifles to a camp in nearby Tuithumhnar village where they were 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 to provide shelter to the refugees on humanitarian grounds, the official said.

After talks among home department officials, the district administration and Assam Rifles, the Bangladeshis were handed over to the village council leaders of Tuithumhnar on Thursday night by the Assam Rifles, he said.

They consist of eight adult males, four females and 16 children aged between 1 and 17 years, the official said.

Till December last year, 2,014 people from Bangladesh had taken shelter in Lawngtlai district, which shares a border with Myanmar and Bangladesh, officials said.

The district also currently hosts 5,922 Myanmar refugees and 84 internally displaced people from Manipur.

The Bangladesh nationals began entering Mizoram in November 2022 and took shelter in Lawngtlai district due to the alleged military offensive by the Bangladeshi army against the 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 Bangladeshis together in four villages within Lawngtlai district close to the Bangladesh border rather than being scattered across different villages.

Punte, who headed a study committee on the 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 a living for themselves.