Agartala:
Five companies of paramilitary Tripura State Rifles or TSR would be deployed for the November 25 Assembly elections in neighbouring Mizoram, officials said.
The troopers are being sent to Mizoram following requests from the Union Home Ministry as some battalions of TSR work as India Reserve Battalions or IRB and the Centre deploys them as per requirements, officials said.
The TSR, which was raised about two decades ago in the pattern of BSF and Assam Rifles as counter insurgency force and nine battalions of the total twelve battalions are India Reserve Battalions, was earlier deployed during Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010, and in elections duties in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
The election department in Tripura has also geared up its machinery in view of Mizoram Assembly polls so that the internally displaced Bru refugees sheltered in Tripura camps could participate in the elections, officials said.
The Election Commission has convened a meeting in Delhi next week to discuss logistical support to Mizoram.
About 35,000 Bru refugees are sheltered in six evacuee camps in Kanchanpur subdivision of North Tripura district. They entered Tripura following ethnic clashes with the Mizos since 1997.