Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma has urged the Centre to understand the state's position in giving shelter to refugees from neighbouring Bangladesh, according to an official statement. Nearly 2,000 people from the Zo ethnic community in Bangladesh have taken refuge in Mizoram since 2022, said an official of the state home department.
During a brief meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday in New Delhi, CM Lalduhoma informed him that his government cannot push back or deport Zo ethnic people from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), the statement said, reported PTI.
He also informed the Prime Minister that many people belonging to the Bawm tribe, one of the ethnic Mizo tribes, from Bangladesh have been taking shelter in Mizoram since 2022, and many of them are still trying to enter the state.
These people started entering 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.
During the meeting, the two leaders also discussed other issues, including the shifting of Assam Rifles' base from the hearth of Aizawl to Zokhawsang on the eastern outskirts of the state capital and the implementation of Mizoram government's flagship programme, hand-holding policy, the statement said, as per the PTI report.
Meanwhile, Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO), an Aizawl-based Mizo group representing Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi tribes of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, slammed the Border Security Force for pushing back the Bangladeshi refugees seeking shelter in Mizoram.
In June, the northeastern state saw a fresh influx of nearly 30 refugees from the CHT, as per an Economic Times report. The people were given refuge in Vathuampui village in southern Mizoram's Lawngtlai district.
As per the report, a total of 1,901 Bangladeshi refugees are taking shelter in Mizoram including 505 women and 810 children.