Bru repatriation issue: FIR against 60 refugees

Tripura Police has registered an FIR against 60 Bru displaced people for allegedly holding refugee leaders captive on Monday and forcing them to withdraw their signature from a tripartite agreement on their repatriation to their home state Mizoram.

The FIR was registered suo-moto at Anandanagar police station in North Tripura district, Superintendent of Police Manik Das said today.

Only three out of the 60 were identified and notices were sent to them, he said.

As per the tripartite agreement signed by the two state governments and the Centre, as many as 32,876 people belonging to the Bru community will be repatriated from Tripura to Mizoram before September 30.

A Sawibunga, president of the Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF), the apex body of the refugees lodged in six relief camps in North Tripura for over two decades, also signed the pact on behalf of the camp inmates.

As part of the July 3 agreement, the Centre offered the refugees a package of Rs 1.5 lakh for housing assistance, Rs 4 lakh for sustenance, free ration for 2 years, Rs 5,000 per month to each refugee family among other benefits.

Unhappy with the outcome of the tripartite agreement, a group of refugees gheraoed Sawibunga and other MBDPF leaders at Naisingpara relief camp for several hours on July 16 and forced him to withdraw his signature in writing from the pact.

The Bru community people from Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts of Mizoram had fled homes following an ethnic clash in 1997 and took shelter in Tripura.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has said there was a conspiracy to stop the Bru people from returning so that the business interests of some people are not affected.