Over 100 activists of a Bru outfit were being given arms training at a refugee camp in Tripura, according to a Mizoram Government confidential report. Altogether 161 cadres of Bru National Steering Committee (BNSC) were being given training in neighbouring North Tripura district’s Naisingpara refugee camp, the report stated. "The one-year training includes basic knowledge of arms and un-armed combat," the report said, adding many Brus, who had returned to Mizoram on their own, had been called back by the BNSC to Naisingpara camp "under the pretext of Bru refugee census." The report hinted that the State Government would soon send a ‘formal’ note to the Centre to apprise it of the arms training.

While the BNSC leadership said the training was conducted to ‘safeguard’ refugees against possible attack from the NLFT, in reality the trained cadres were likely to join the Bru National Liberation Front to launch operations in Mizoram in the near future, the report said. "The BNSC, which is sometimes called Bru Refugee Steering Committee (BRSC), was formed in the later part of last year under the leadership of Lalkhuama, alias Suren, of Bawngva as president and Malsawma as secretary," the report said. The report comprised list of the names and addresses of those who passed out of the camp on June 17, this year. "The trained cadres are likely to join the newly constructed camp at Riflemara, Assam," it said. The involvement of the BNLF in the training was not ruled out.
     
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