Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla on Tiuesday said that the state government would welcome the Bru refugees lodged in relief camps in Tripura if they were bona fide residents of the state.
Intervening in the discussion on Bru repatriation during question hour in the state legislature, Lal Thanhawla said the Brus had left the state on their own will, while many of them remained in the state and refused to go even after being threatened by Bru militants.
The chief minister also said he would never allow creation of separate autonomous district council for any community, including the Brus. He made this statement when state Home Minister R Lalzirliana said that the Brus had pleaded before the Supreme Court for setting up such a council in the state.
He said that the then Union Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani had made allegation against the people and government of Mizoram saying that Brus had been persecuted by the Mizo community for being followers of Hinduism.
"I gave replies to Advani that the Brus were never Hindus and though they were originally animists, majority of them were converted to Christianity," he said adding that the allegations of 28 Hindu temples were burnt in Mizoram was false as there was no such Hindu temple in the Bru-dominated areas.
The home minister said that 5,407 Bru families in the six Tripura relief camps were identified as bona fide residents of Mizoram during November 2 to 23, 2016 by Mizoram government officials at the relief camps.
He further said that 10,763 Brus lodged in the relief camps were enrolled in the Mizoram voters' lists.