Extremist Attacks on CPI(M) Continue in Tripura

IT seems the increasing isolation of Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) from the people on the eve of assembly polls is driving this organisation to despair and desperation, terrifying it of the possibility that it may get unmasked. It will be noted that the INPT, which is the political mask of an outlawed extremist outfit called the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), is also one with which the Congress party has entered an alliance. It was with the help of NLFT guns that the INPT captured the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC, or ADC in short) when elections to this body were held in May 2000.

Another cause of the INPT’s desperation is that, with the help of the local people, the Tripura administration and police are making all-out efforts to catch in their dragnet the extremists and their accomplices. Significantly enough, addressing a landmark rally of the CITU-affiliated Rickshaw Workers Union in Agartala on December 7, chief minister Manik Sarkar reiterated the Left Front government’s dauntless determination to crack down on any attempt to hijack the state assembly polls at the gunpoint.

It is in such a situation that the INPT-Congress combine has intensified its depredations against the CPI(M) and Left Front workers in the state. On November 29, at West Daluma under Amarpur subdivision in South Tripura, Congress heavyweight Jawhar Saha called upon Dayadatta Jamatia, an activist of the Upajati Ganamukti Parishad (GMP), to attend a meeting of the Congress-INPT combine.  As Jamatia did not comply, a furious Jawhar Saha threatened him with dire consequences unless he joined the INPT.

The threat came true on December 6 when, armed with sophisticated weapons, a group of 5 NLFT extremists raided Dayadatta Jamatia’s house at about 12.30 a m. As soon as he came out, they opened fire, threatening similar punishment to anyone who works for the CPI(M). Later on, jawans of the Tripura State Rifles (TSR) removed the grievously injured Jamatia to the Amarpur subdivisional hospital from where he was shifted first to the district hospital at Udaipur, and then to G B Hospital, Agartala.

Meanwhile, on December 3, NLFT extremists severely beat up Manik Tripura, a veteran CPI(M) activist, at Manikpur under Longtarai valley subdivision in Dhalai district. On the same day, they also beat Rasamala Debbarma, a CPI(M) panchayat member and women’s front leader, along with her two children, at Champahaur under Khowai subdivision in West Tripura district.

On December 7, INPT miscreants attacked a spirited march of above 600 young men and women who were on their way to the rally organised by the DYFI and is affiliate --- the Tribal Youth Federation (TYF) --- at Maharanipur near Teliamura, West Tripura. Prompt resistance by the rallyists, however, led to the capture of a miscreant near the ancestral house of INPT leader Rabindra Debbarma, and the retreat of others. The captured miscreant was subsequently handed over to the police.

While the tip-offs from the locals regarding the presence of NLFT extremists at INPT strongholds are leading to the arrest of extremists in increasing numbers, INPT leaders are seen trying to secure their release immediately thereafter, without any scruples about putting the mask off the face. On December 6 evening, acting on a tip-off, TSR jawans raided a house near Khumulwng, the headquarters of the INPT-controlled ADC. After a brief exchange of fire, the extremists made good their escape under the cover of darkness. But a search on the spot by the jawans led to the capture of three branded accomplices of NLFT extremists. Immediately thereafter, however, INPT members in the ADC, including 2 executive members, swung into action to lobby for the release of those arrested when they were held in the Jirania police station in West Tripura district. 

On the same day, a combined nocturnal raid by the police and TSR in the foothills of Tharamura near Teliamura led to the arrest of two hardcore NLFT extremists who were at the time putting up in the house of a local panchayat leader of the INPT. A good number of incriminating documents was also seized from them.

However, a more distressing news is that even jawans of the Assam Rifles, that is a vital part of the already inadequate security forces deployed in the state, have started adopting terror tactics against CPI(M) activists. This was what came out from two separate incidents on November 28, when several CPI(M) activists including a veteran party leader were severely beaten up in Tripura. Some of the Assam Rifles jawans were also found acting in collusion with NLFT or ATTF extremists. 

On November 28 morning, according to police sources, 8 miscreants including an Assam Rifles jawan, posted at the paramilitary forces’ camp at Ganki under Khowai subdivision in West Tripura, and three formerly surrendered ATTF extremists who were sheltered in the camp, raided the house of veteran CPI(M) divisional committee member Nakshirai Debbarma at Rajani Sarderpara at Kalyanpur in Khowai subdivision and started beating him up severely, alongwith his son Hemanta Debbarma. The villagers then put up a bold mass resistance to the miscreants even though the latter threatened them with gunfire, and caught hold of 8 attackers alongwith two motor vehicles and a bike. These were the vehicles the miscreants used to arrive at the spot and included a jeep the police had rented for the Assam Rifles camp. Those nabbed were handed over to the police while the victims --- Nakshirai Debbarma and Hemanta Debbarma --- were hospitalised at Kalyanpur.

In another incident in the afternoon on the same day, according to police sources, Assam Rifles jawans from the Abhicharan camp raided the Burakha market place under Sadar subdivision in West Tripura. These jawans had reached the spot in three vehicles, alongwith some miscreants who owe allegiance to the INPT, the overground wing of the outlawed extremist outfit NLFT. There this combined gang of the paramilitary personnel and INPT goons severely beat up three CPI(M) activists and supporters in the market place, kidnapped one of them, Madan Debbarma, alongwith his motor bike, and took him to the Assam Rifles camp.

Earlier on November 24, three INPT activists and an Assam Rifles employee of the camp, who happened to be the brother of one of the three INPT miscreants, all in a fit of drunkenness, beat up members of the CPI(M)-supporting families at Burakha. (These families had settled here after they were uprooted from their hearth and home elsewhere due to extremist atrocities.) But the villagers put up stiff resistance against these INPT and Assam Rifles miscreants who had then to beat a retreat. 

It will be mentioned here that when the INPT usurped the ADC in May 2000, some officers of the Assam Rifles had secretly colluded with NLFT leaders to rig the said elections. Again, during the run-up to the February 2002 Lok Sabha byelection in West Tripura constituency, some of the Assam Rifles officers secretly parleyed with some Congress leaders at the Agartala headquarters of this paramilitary force. Now, with the Tripura assembly elections slated for February next, the politically motivated atrocities of a section of the Assam Rifles personnel are making one apprehensive that these personnel may again play a partisan role in the ensuing polls.

In the meantime, another 4 NLFT extremists surrendered themselves at the Ganki camp of Assam Rifles on November 28. On the other hand, jawans of the Tripura State Rifles arrested on the same day another NLFT extremist at Takarjala under Bishalgarh subdivision in West Tripura.

ULTRA CORRIDOR BORDER

It will be noted that the police has already filed in court a chargesheet against four INPT members in the ADC executive, for sending 64 college students of Tripura to extremist sanctuaries in Bangladesh for arms training.

In the meantime, on December 3 some civilians of Bangladesh nabbed two members of the outlawed extremist NLFT in very early hours, when they were trying to infiltrate into Indian territory at Sonamura in West Tripura. The two extremists have confessed that the local Congress legislator Billal Mia’s maternal uncle, Rabi Mia, had acted as a go-between in their trans-border terrorism.

The incident is a glaring indication that outlawed extremists are using the Sonamura border with Bangladesh as a corridor for their cross-border atrocities, in collusion with the Congress party.

According to sources, in the wee hours on the day, a Bangladesh Army personnel, at home on leave, stopped two NLFT extremists from crossing over into the Indian territory at Sonamura in front of Durgapur and N C Nagar. In the midst of their altercation with the said citizen of Bangladesh, these extremist youth drew out a firearm concealed in their bag and fired in the air to intimidate him. Meanwhile, numerous villagers on both sides of the border gathered on the spot, and started beating up the two extremists. An AK-47 rifle, a carbine, a 9 mm pistol, 320 rounds of cartridges, two grenades and Rs 50,000 in Indian and Bangladesh currencies were found in their bag. Then they disclosed to the villagers their identity as the two of a gang of NLFT extremists, and said they were trying to cross over into Tripura following arms training in Myanmar. They also disclosed that Rabi Mia of Golbari (Sonamura) and Dulal Mia of Shahapur (in Comilla district of Bangladesh) have been acting as their cross-border connections, and have links also with some officers of the Mainamati Cantonment of Bangladesh Army.

The two extremists were, however, promptly removed from the spot, alongwith their arms, by some officers of Bangladesh Army who had in the meantime rushed into Shahapur from Mainamati Cantonment. Rabi Mia has since been identified as the maternal uncle of Billal Mia, Congress legislator of Boxanagar, Sonamura. The BSF has requested the Bangladesh Rifles to hand it over the two extremists.

It will be mentioned here that in the ongoing negotiation for seat-adjustment between the Congress and the INPT for the upcoming assembly polls in Tripura, the INPT has proposed to field as a candidate Billal Mia’s brother, Salim Mia. The latter too is alleged to be involved as a go-between in the NLFT’s trans-border terrorism. (INN)