Over 200 Kuki-Chin-Mizo People From Bangladesh Enter Mizoram: Official

Mizoram, already burdened with 30,000 refugees from coup-hit Myanmar, is now facing a fresh influx from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Refugees are seen waiting in a queue

Source : File Photo/Getty

More than 200 people belonging to the Kuki-Chin-Mizo community from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have entered Mizoram's Lawngtlai district due to an armed conflict between the neighbouring country's Army and an ethnic armed group, an official said on Monday.

Mizoram, already burdened with 30,000 refugees from coup-hit Myanmar, is now facing a fresh influx from neighbouring Bangladesh, with which it shares a 318-km-long partly fenced international border Lawngtlai Deputy Commissioner Amol Srivastava said that more than 270 Bangladeshi nationals entered Lawngtlai district on Sunday.

The Bangladesh nationals are now being looked after by NGOs, local people and Border Security Force (BSF), which guards the Indo-Bangladesh border, the DC said.

"We are waiting for a detailed report. The Bangladeshis are now provided with shelter and relief by NGOs and locals," he told PTI.

He said the BSF is also monitoring the situation.

Lawngtlai's Tuichawng group of Young Mizo Association (YMA) vice president Laltanpuia, who monitor the relief measures, told PTI that a total of 174 people, including 125 women and children, from seven villages dominated by Bawm tribe of Chin-Kuki-Mizo group, have taken shelter at Siminasora village in Lawngtlai district after fleeing their homes on Sunday.

Many of the refugees fled after armed clashes between Bangladesh army and ethnic insurgent group Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA) last week and entered Mizoram, he said.

The influx of refugees from Bangladesh had come at a time when Mizoram is housing more than 30,000 people from Myanmar, who fled their homes due to the military coup in the neighbouring country in February last year. Mizoram shares a 510-km-long porous international border with Myanmar.

The Myanmar nationals are lodged at more than 150 relief camps, while some are living with their local relatives and others in rented houses. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)