People's Democracy

Conspiracy To Undermine Anti-Terrorist Operations

IN the backdrop of the Left Front government’s excellent coordination ensuring the combat readiness of the people, the police and the paramilitary forces against the outlawed extremist organisations NLFT and ATTF in Tripura, a conspiracy of the vested interests is afoot to undermine this exemplary coordination and to boost the morale of the extremists who are getting increasingly cornered. That the two incidents of ambush between the extremists and the security forces in Tripura on July 6 and 7, were immediately preceded by a disinformation and maligning campaign undertaken by a section of the local yellow press, gives a glimpse of this heinous conspiracy.

On July 7, at about 5.30 a m, when a patrol of the Tripura State Rifles (TSR) was heading for the Khowai subdivision headquarters in West Tripura, ATTF extremists threw a high-powered improvised explosive device when the patrol reached Baijalbari in Khowai subdivision. The explosion killed two TSR jawans on the spot and grievously injured six others.  

At about 6.30 a m on July 6, in a similar extremist ambush, a CRPF patrol in the same subdivision encountered a high-powered mine explosion carried out by ATTF extremists, a kilometre away from the CRPF camp at Baramaidan. A group of 10-12 ATTF extremists had planted the mine in the jungle terrain much before the patrol reached the spot and detonated it through a 50 metres long fuse-wire connection. The mine and the wire were hidden beneath the muddy ground while the extremists themselves were hidden in the dense forest. The explosion blew up the gypsy vehicle of the patrol party and grievously injured the driver and the CRPF havilder sitting in the front. The jawans from the one-tonner rear vehicle and three others immediately jumped out from their seats, promptly took positions and opened retaliatory fire, foiling the extremists’ obvious bid to kill the CPRF jawans and loot their arms. Over 200 rounds of fire were exchanged between the two sides.

The injured were immediately sent to the G B Hospital, Agartala, for treatment.

On getting information about the ambush, a reinforcement led by the battalion commandant, the SDPO and SP rushed to the spot. Incidentally, this was the second incident of mine explosion in Khowai subdivision; earlier an explosion was carried out against a convoy of BSF jawans in Champahour area in 1999.

Through separate statements, the CPI(M) state secretariat and the chief minister Manik Sarkar vehemently condemned the extremist ambushes against security forces on July 6 and 7. They described these as desperate and dastardly bids to undermine the ongoing series of spectacular successes the counter-insurgency operations are registering because of the exemplary coordination between the state administration, people, police and paramilitary forces. The statements also expressed grave concern over the centre’s move to withdraw a portion of the paramilitary forces from the landlocked Tripura, surrounded by Bangladesh on three sides, despite the prolonged paucity of security forces in the state.

Strangely enough, a few hours after the July 6 extremist ambush, a posse of CRPF jawans raided tribal houses of the local area and indiscriminately beat up innocent men and women, not sparing even the aged and the infants. This CRPF posse arrested 64 people and dispatched them to the nearby police station. A CRPF assistant commandant and a few jawans accosted even the local CPI(M) legislator Padma Debbarma, pointed a pistol at him and threatened him with death when he was on his way back after visiting the spot of the extremist ambush. The CPRF men also beat up and detained for a while the legislator’s official guards and the village panchayat chairman. Reacting to the CRPF’s highhandedness against the local people, chief minister Manik Sarkar said that such avoidable highhandedness would only deprive the CRPF’s men combating insurgency of the urgently needed support from the peace-loving people.

Meanwhile, under a 4-column wide banner headline in its June 29 issue, local daily Syandan Patrika, unofficial organ of the Congress party in the state, carried a story saying “the state government initiates rehabilitation of the displaced threatening the security of the National Highway.” But the fact is that if the state government is trying to set up a cluster of villages by the National Highway to rehabilitate the helpless people who had been driven away from their hearth and home by extremist attacks and atrocities, everybody would hail it as a bold and practical decision on part of the Left Front government. According to the Syandan Patrika, CRPF authorities are dead against this decision due to the so-called peril of insurgency on the National Highway it would supposedly generate. However, CRPF authorities promptly issued a vehement protest against this story implicating the CRPF.

The Syandan Patrika story also said the BSF authorities have ruled out the state government’s claim about the existence of NLFT camps in neighbouring Mizoram. Reacting to this part of the story, Manik Sarkar informed the newsmen at the Civil Secretariat on July 3 that there were specific intelligence reports on the existence of six NLFT hideouts or temporary camps in Mizoram and on the free movement of the NLFT extremists in the state capital Aizawl. The information has already been conveyed to the centre, Manik Sarkar stated.

Incidentally, the Syandan Patrika’s unofficial patron, the Congress party, is allied to the INPT that is the NLFT’s overground political wing. (INN)