No autonomous body for Brus in Mizoram

AIZAWL, March 16 ? Mizoram government has no intention to create a separate autonomous district council for the Brus/Reangs by carving out some parts of the State, Home Minister Tawnluia told the State Assembly here Friday, reports PTI. In a written reply to questions from Zakhu Hlychho of the Congress and J Lalthangliana of the Mizoram People?s Conference, Tawnluia said that delegation of the State governemnt and the Brus National Liberation Front (BNLF) had held four rounds of talks and would continue to have dialogue to reach a solution to the Bru problem. He informed the State Legislature that the government did not have any knowledge of a recent ruling by the apex court on the repatriation of Brus from neighbouring Tripura. He admitted that the State administration is yet to make final identification of Brus who were bona fide residents of Mizoram, now in six refugee caamps in Tripura. He said, ?once they are repatriated, they would be resettled in the districts where they used to stay before the exodus in later part of 1997.? The Bru National Union (BNU) and its militant wing the BNLF have been unleashing violent activities against Mizoram from their hideouts in Bangladesh and Tripura since 1997 demanding a separate autonomous district council for the community. The Bru militants have committed murders, abductions, extortion and other offences in Mizoram soil which prompted the State government insisting that the repatriation of the Brus from Tripura would not be implemented until and unless the insurgents lay down arms.