Headlines       Vol. 1 Issue 38-39

Mar 7 - Mar 21 , 1999

Boy lifted by NLFT: Students become targets of ultras' kidnapping spree Agitated over the kidnapping of their school mate Sujit Das by the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) ultras, students of Bisramganj school had locked up their institution threatening to launch indefinite agitation and would not let the authorities reopen the school until and unless Sujit Das was released. A student of class IX of the school, the boy was kidnapped by the NLFT militants recently from Jogaibari area. It is being said that some local tribal miscreants helped the heavily-armed NLFT ultras when they raided Jogaibari village and kidnapped Sujit in broad daylight. The militants first cordoned off the village from all sides and then started beating the people. This is not the first time that the NLFT has kidnapped a student. As a matter of fact, over the last few months, the students have become the most vulnerable target of the militants. In last one year or so, at least 22 students were kidnapped in Tripura by the underground forces. Among them, two had so far been reported as killed and eight are still in captivity, while the rest managed to secure release after paying huge amount ransom money. Narayan Das, a student of class VIII of Kamariakhola school in Amarpur subdivision in south Tripura district, was tortured to death by the NLFT militants. Two more students of the same school, Priyalal Das of class III and Bharat Das of class V, were also kidnapped by the same organisation and had not been released till date. Rakhal Das yet another class XII student from the same subdivision was kidnapped by the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) militants along with four others the last year and all of them were buried alive. On the other hand Sajal Banik was somewhat lucky as his family could secure his release after shelling out huge ransom to the ultras who kidnapped him. Just before the kidnapping of Sujit Das, the ultras kidnapped three other students, Aloke Karmakar, Sanjay Sen and Purnima Ghosh from the south Tripura district. The school-going boys had all along been insurgents' soft targets, but recently the menace has almost become a daily occurence. Before Sujit Das was kidnapped, from the Bisramganj area alone, the ultras had kidnapped five more students. All of them were released after payment of heavy ransom money. For the last two years, the area has witnessed increasing NLFT attacks almost every month. Following subsequent extremist attacks, thousands of villagers of Bisramganj had already deserted the area to save themselves from ultras' clutches.

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