AGARTALA, June 4 (TIWN): Due to absence of barbed fencing along eastern border of the state Bangladeshi tribal’s have entered Tripura seeking refuge after ethnic violence erupted in their country, said Chief Minister Manik Sarkar while addressing a press meet on Wednesday at secretariat.

He claimed due to laxity on the part of Union government the erection of border fencing is getting delayed. Tripura government has already informed the central home ministry about the development.  Officers of the Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) held a meeting on the issue. State officials went to border areas to pursue the infiltrators to return to Bangladesh, said Mr. Sarkar..

Over 250 men, women and children of 70 families of Chakma and Tripuri tribes have taken shelter in four villages of Tripura’s Gandachara area along the international border since Monday. The tribal’s, mostly Buddhists and Hindus, fled their villages after non-tribals attacked their homes in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), a tribal dominated area in Bangladesh that borders India and Myanmar.

The UPDF (United People’s Democratic Front) activists supported by the local anti-peace groups attacked the houses of Chakma and Tripuri tribals and also burnt their homes forcing them to take shelter in Tripura. The UPDF has been opposing a peace accord signed in 1997 between the Bangladesh government headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samity (PCJSS) led by Santu Larma.

The PCJSS’s armed wing, Shanti Bahini, is demanding sovereign status for tribals in Chittagong. In 1986, over 74,000 tribals took shelter in Tripura following violent attacks. The refugees had returned to their homes after the peace accord was signed. Tripura shares an 856 km border with Bangladesh that is porous because it extends over mountains that are densely forested.