CM Lalduhoma informed the Prime Minister that many people belonging to the Bawm tribe, one of the Mizo ethnic tribes of Bangladesh, have taken shelter in Mizoram since 2022.
Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma on Saturday urged the Centre to understand Mizoram’s position on providing shelter to refugees from neighbouring Bangladesh, an official statement said.
A state home ministry official said nearly 2,000 Zo people from Bangladesh have sought shelter in Mizoram since 2022.
During a brief conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, Lalduhoma informed him that his government could not push back or deport the Zo people from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh, the statement said.
He informed the Prime Minister that many people belonging to the Bawm tribe, one of the Mizo ethnic tribes of Bangladesh, have taken shelter in Mizoram since 2022 and many of them are still trying to enter the state.
They began invading Mizoram in November 2022 following a military offensive by the Bangladeshi army against the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA), an ethnic insurgent group fighting for a separate state.
The two leaders also discussed other issues, including the shifting of the Assam Rifles base from the heart of Aizawl to Zokhawsang on the eastern outskirts of the state capital and implementation of the Mizoram government’s flagship programme, the hand-in-hand policy, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO), an Aizawl-based Mizo group representing the Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi tribes of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, has strongly criticised the Border Security Force (BSF) for pushing back Bengali refugees seeking shelter in Mizoram.
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First print: 06 Jul 2024 | 23:42 IST