Bangladeshi trained guerillas belonging to NLFT and ATTF lays down their arms and ammunition in Tripura.

North East News Agency

The surrender of several misguided youths in Tripura supports the fact that insurgency is on the decline in the State. Recently, Bangladeshi trained guerillas comprising 25 belonging to the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and eight to the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) laid down their arms and ammunition to Director General of Police Ghanshyam Murari Srivastava. Official sources claimed that more militant groups were in touch with the authorities to come to the mainstream of life. The recruitment of tribal youths into the militant outfits had come down to a large extent, sources stressed.

Meanwhile, at a public meeting recently Tripura Chief Minister, Manick Sarkar alleged that the Congress party has been consistently encouraging terrorist outfits in the State, with an objective to weaken or topple the Communist-led government.

The Chief Minister alleged that Congress was rendering open support to terrorists, who in turn had “blessings of the ISI and CIA.” He said the Left parties, despite continuous intervention by the Congress, had successfully emerged as winners five times in past elections and also swept recent local body polls where all other parties, including the Congress and Trinamool lost their deposits. The main focus of the Tripura Government, he said, was uplifting people Below the Poverty Line. “We go to the people and fulfill their requirements the best we can,” the Chief Minister said.

It may be mentioned here that as against 67 victims of insurgency in 2004, 29 civilian and 11 security force personnel were killed in 2005. According to government sources, over all insurgency related incidents registered a 50 percent decline. In addition surrender of 225 insurgents of the state’s two major outfits the NLFT and ATTF killing of another 19 by the security forces also raised prospect of a sustainable peace.

The surrendered rebels included Sadhana Debbarma, wife of top NLFT leader Jasua Debbarma, who had been staying in Bangladesh.

Sadhana Debbarma, who was a staff nurse of G B government hospital and kidnapped by Jasua group in 1994, recently escaped from the militants’ Bangladeshi hideout with her daughter and son.

The ultras deposited five AK series rifles, four self-loading rifles, three improvised guns, ten live grenades and a large cache of arms and ammunition.

On its part, the Centre claimed that the overall security situation in North-East has shown signs of improvements and mutual undterstanding with the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh,Myanmar and China has helped easing the situation. The security situation has improved not only in terms of declining levels of violence but also through public revulsion against mindless acts of terrorism, a yearending report from the Union Home Minsitry said. There have been instances of public protests against high-handedness by militant cadres and people are now forthcoming to speak against the militants, it added.

Referring to the situation in the troubled Karbi-Anglong district of Assam the report said that it is fast returning to normalcy after the ethnic strife in the district started in September end. There is “aggressive” patrolling by the Security Forces is on in the area and State Government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the clashes, it added.

The report gave details of the steps taken by the Centre for peace process with different militant outfits including the ANVC and the NSCN(IM). It also mentined about the ceasefire agreements with these outfits.

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