A total of 274 Bangladeshi nationals that includes 125 women and children, fled their villages in Bangladesh and entered Siminasora village in Lawngtlai district, Mizoram, on Sunday, said an official, who did not wish to be named.
The mass exodus happened on the heels of a recent encounter between the Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA).
KNA is the armed wing of the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), a political front formed by the ethnic Kuki-Chin-Mizo community in Bangladesh that is demanding for a separate state and safeguard for the community in the neighbouring country. The Bangladesh nationals who fled to Mizoram belong to the Kuki-Chin-Mizo community, said the official.
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The Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO), an umbrella body that works for the re-unification of Chin, Kuki and Mizo tribes of India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, has condemned the attack on civilians of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo community by the Bangladesh army.
The Mizo group that works for the reunification of Chin-Kuki-Mizo tribes of India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, alleged that the Bangladesh army reached a secret agreement with the Myanmar-based Arakan Army (AA) to launch joint operations against the KNA. The group also appealed to the state’s people to extend humanitarian aid to the refugees.
The combined forces of Bangladesh RAB and AA attacked Chaihkhiang and the surrounding villages last week, and abducted nine civilians.
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The state’s influential student body Mizo Students’ Union (MSU) urged Border Security Forces (BSF), which guards the Indo-Bangladesh border, not to prevent the refugees from entering Mizoram.
Mizoram shares a 318-km-long international border with Bangladesh, which touches Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and West Bengal. The district administration and non-government organisations (NGOs) are providing relief to the Bangladeshis on humanitarian ground, he added.
