Mizoram Initiates Census of Bru Refugees in Tripura

Aizawl, Jun 6 : Mizoram government has taken initiative to conduct census amongst Bru refugees lodged in the six relief camps in Kanchanpur sub-division of North Tripura district.

Elvis Chorkhy, president of Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) told PTI over phone that Mizoram government sent them two proformas for the census - one for those who left Mizoram in 1997 and another for those who left the state last year.

"We were doing a head count of the refugees who left Mizoram in 2009 and who had not returned till date, but the Mizoram government's instruction left us with no option but to undertake census for the all the refugees," Chorkhy said.

He said Tripura government had also taken up head count of the refugees who left Mizoram last year and had not returned and had found around 120 families so far.

Thousands of Brus left Mizoram in the later part of 1997 after Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) militants gunned down Lalzawmliana, a forest guard inside Dampa Tiger Reserve in October 1997, which triggered communal flare-up.

The efforts of Mizoram government and Union home ministry to repatriate Bru refugees from November 16 last year was derailed by the killing of a Mizo youth by suspected Bru insurgents three days before the scheduled repatriation, sources said.