Silchar, Aug. 8: The Bru Liberation Front of Mizoram (BLFM), a group of Bru rebels from the northwestern flank of Mizoram, has forged close ties with the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA), signalling a major development in the insurgency theatre of the state.

The ZRA, an insurgent gang of Zomi tribals belonging to the Kuki-Chin ethnic group, has been active in the Churachandpur and Tipaimukh areas of Manipur for the past two decades. The outfit demands an autonomous district in Manipur, dominated by the tribe.

The alliance struck between the two militant groups envisages supply of arms by the ZRA to the Bru rebels. It also involves mutual co-operation in carrying out guerrilla raids in their respective strongholds.

The BLFM is a breakaway gang of the Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF), which surrendered in June 2004 in Mizoram, vowing to return to the mainstream.

The partnership between the gangs was a well-kept secret of which the Mizoram police had no inkling. The credit for the discovery of this guerrilla tie-up goes to the Karimganj district police, who stumbled onto this information.

The Karimganj police nabbed three tribal youths on July 26 in the district’s Mubarakpur village after a patrol found their movements somewhat suspicious. The arrested trio have been identified as Suan Liang, Minlal Liang and Tensing Liang — all ZRA cadres in their twenties.

On interrogation, they disclosed that the BLFM had hired them to guard abducted primary school headmaster Mrinal Kanti Chakravarty, from the Longai forest area. Chakravarty, 55, was kidnapped on June 8 this year by Mizoram-based cadres of the BLFM, who had whisked him off to Naichingpara village in North Tripura.

Chakravarty had been shifted from one place to another by the BLFM for the sake of security. He was finally killed during an encounter between the rebels and the Tripura police in the state’s Damcherra area on 13 July.

After Chakravarty was kidnapped, the Zomi rebel cadres were released to go back to their headquarters in Churachandpur.