The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Mizoram Government to take back an estimated 40,000 Reang refugees living in Tripura, and asked the Centre to play an active role in arranging their repatriation on priority basis, Home Ministry sources said. "The Reangs living in refugee camps in Kanchanpur sub-division of Tripura are lawful inhabitants of Mizoram and the State Government is obliged to take them back in accordance with the agreement made with the Union Home Minister in November 1997", the commission held.

After a meeting held recently by NHRC member Sudarshan Agarwal with chief secretaries of Mizoram, Tripura and Assam in Agartala, the commission said that the Mizoram Government should take all necessary steps to impart a sense of confidence and security to the refugees who fled the State in the wake of ethnic tension in 1997, sources said. It said dispute, if any, regarding the number of refugees could be resolved by joint verification at the camps by a committee comprising representatives of Tripura and Mizoram Governments and Union Home Ministry.