Repatriation of several hundred people who had taken shelter in Assam’s Karimganj district following clashes with Bru refugees in north Tripura began on Sunday. The exodus occurred last week after local indigenous residents and Mizoram Bru refugees of a makeshift camp clashed over alleged encroachment of farmland.
At least 700 people of Halam sub-tribes were displaced after rioters torched several houses at Damcherra area of north Tripura district. A number of people sustained injuries, but none was seriously hurt.
The displaced people crossed the Longai river to reach Karimganj of Assam. Karimganj district administration provided them shelter and distributed relief materials.
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North Tripura district administration sent vehicles to Karimganj on Sunday to bring back the displaced people. District officials said they have arranged temporary stay of the returnees at a school building in Damcherra before they would return to their respective hamlets.
CRPF contingents have been deployed in violence hit places and section 144 of CrPC imposed to contain the tension. Authorities claimed that the situation has been completely normal.
Local leaders of different political parties, village elders and Bru refugee representatives extended help to restore peace and amity between ethnic groups.
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Meanwhile Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance or the TIPRA which is governing the Tribal Autonomous District Council has called for ‘peace and unity among the State’s 19 tribal clans’. In a statement signed by senior functionaries, the party alleged that ‘indigenous communities have suffered for the past 74 years by falling prey to the divide and rule policy’.