Assam Rifles selects 75 from Mizoram Bru refugee camps

Pre-recruitment rally at Naisingpara, Ashapara and Hajachara; more camps will be covered soon

TRINING SKILLS: At a Bru refugee camp in Tripura. Assam Rifles provides support for young tribal men to enrol in the armed forces, mainly the Army. File photo

: Paramilitary force Assam Rifles has initiated the recruitment of tribal evacuees from Mizoram housed in north Tripura. The refugees continue to reside in camps in Tripura after successive attempts to repatriate them failed.

Assam Rifles, the world’s oldest paramilitary force engaged in counter insurgency and security operations in northeast India, provides support for young tribal men to enrol in the armed forces, mainly the army. It selected 75 tribal youths from three of the seven camps of about 33,000 Bru or Reang displaced people.

“We conducted a pre-recruitment rally at Naisingpara, Ashapara and Hajachara camps and found them eligible for the next recruitment exercise. A similar rally will be organised in other camps soon,” a security official told

The Hindu on Saturday.

Naisingpara is the largest campus meant for Bru residents, who entered Tripura in 1997 following ethnic turmoil in Mizoram. The Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples’ Forum (MBDPF), an apex body for the refugees, is also located here.

The official said 75 youths will be provided training for a month at an Assam Rifles facility in Kanchanpur of north Tripura. They will be prepared for the final recruitment test slated for Shillong on March 1 next.

The first step

MBDPF, which opposes the current repatriation initiative by raising some contentious issues, has been demanding recruitment in security forces from the Mizoram Bru community. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has responded to this demand with this first recruitment process, sources said.

On repatriation, the north Tripura district magistrate Dr. Sandeep Mahatme earlier informed that the Mizoram government completed the identification process in the camps. He said other modalities are also in place to facilitate the smooth return of evacuees.

As per plan, the returnees would be resettled in the Kolasib, Mamit and Lunglei districts of Mizoram, which were mainly affected during the ethnic strife in September 1997, causing refugees to flood Tripura.

The MHA prepared an inclusive rehabilitation package for the Bru refuges. Free ration to each of refugee families for a period of two years is also proposed in the package.