mizoram: 200 Kuki-Chin-Mizo people from Bangladesh enter Mizoram

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. 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.