Aizawl, Jan. 31: The Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), Young Mizoram Association, Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl and Mizoram Upa Pawl — the four largest NGOs of the state — have decided to send representatives to identify and separate bonafide Mizo citizens from the group of 804 Bru rebels that had surrendered before the state government last year.

The organisations, in a meeting held at the MZP office yesterday, voiced concern about the state government’s failure to initiate the process of identifying bonafide citizens despite assurances to do so.

MZP president P.C. Laltlansanga said outsiders may have slipped into the state because of Mizoram’s failure to verify the antecedents of the Bru Liberation Front of Mizoram militants when they had surrendered last year.

Earlier, intelligence sources had revealed that the Bru outfit had been on a recruiting spree just before the mass surrender and had lured youths with promises of rehabilitation money. As a result, the ranks of the Bru outfit swelled considerably, but the state government declined to take them in.

Sources said the Centre forced the Mizoram government to accept the Bru surrender without verifying the antecedents of the rebels.

The NGOs had initially protested against the repatriation of Bru refugees.

, saying the latter had left the state on their own accord. The NGOs, however, changed their minds and are now insisting that only those originally from Mizoram be rehabilitated.

The meeting yesterday resolved that representatives from each of the four NGOs would be selected to verify the antecedents of the surrendered Bru rebels.