TRIPURA

Biggest Extremist Carnage On Independence Day Eve

IN the biggest ever case of genocide on the independence day eve, extremists gunned down a total of 30 innocent non-tribal villagers including women and children, on August 14 night, in two separate attacks in Khowai subdivision of West Tripura district. Meanwhile, among the four people critically injured in the nocturnal extremist attack at Lembucherra under Sadar subdivision, West Tripura, on August 13, Asit Das (23), succumbed to his injury after midnight in hospital, taking the toll of this attack to three. The attack had already taken two lives on the spot, including that of Bimal Deb (39) who was the organising secretary of the local unit of a Leftist teachers association. Incidentally, all those killed and injured in this incident were activists of the Left and democratic movements.

These attacks were clearly aimed at washing out all independence day ceremonies in Tripura by triggering an ethnic bloodbath in the state.

The two cases of extremist attack in Khowai subdivision on August 14 night climaxed the series of extremist strikes in the state following the joint call for boycott of independence day ceremonies, issued by outlawed separatist organisations in the north east, including the ATTF and NLFT of Tripura. Between 9.30 to 10.00 p m on the day, two groups of ATTF gunmen almost simultaneously carried out dastardly attacks on villagers at Baralunga under Teliamura police station and at Daspara of Kamalnagar under Kalyanpur police station. In a pre-planned bid to spark ethnic riots, the imperialist-backed ATTF extremists targeted the non-tribal neighbourhoods, stormed into the houses of poor labourers, and randomly fired upon everyone, irrespective of young and old, men and women. The two incidents left 27 people killed and 12 others injured on the spot. Three persons succumbed to their injuries later in G B Hospital, Agartala.

Vehemently condemning the diabolic and dastardly extremist genocide, Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar instructed the police and administration to take all-out measures to nab the culprits. At the instance of the state government, army has been deployed in areas under the two police stations to defuse the situation and foil any divisive designs of the vested interests.

In another extremist ambush on August 14 afternoon, five BSF jawans were injured at Kanpui under Kanchanpur subdivision in North Tripura district. At about 4.00 p m on the day, a BSF water carrier vehicle with 9 jawans, led by a Havilder, was ambushed from a hilltop by NLFT extremists. The extremists fled the scene following a fight for a quite long time. The injured jawans were hospitalised by their colleagues.

The spurt of extremist strikes on the eve of the independence day has left a total of 10 security force personnel and 33 innocent people killed, and 10 security force personnel and 12 others injured in several incidents since August 11 in Tripura.

Earlier on August 11, extremists launched an abortive grenade attack on a security force outpost, and later killed seven police personnel and special police officers (SPOs) in an ambush. On August 12, they killed three Assam Rifles jawans in an encounter. Then followed the killing of two Left democratic activists, including a teacher, on August 13 night at Lembuchhera under Sadar subdivision in West Tripura, when ATTF extremists opened random firing on a small market. As said, one of the victims of this August 13 carnage died in hospital later on.

It will be noted that these extremist carnages took place in the background of the INPT’s ouster from the ADC, which has been reported in these columns. While the people of Tripura are increasingly rallying behind the Left and democratic camp, resulting in growing isolation and exposure of the anti-people and anti-national forces in the state, the foreign funded outlawed extremist outfits of the north east, including the NLFT and ATTF of Tripura, have stepped up their dastardly and diabolic hit and run actions against the patriotic security forces as well as democratic activists.

It is to be noted that INPT is the overground political wing of the terrorist NLFT and is in alliance with the Congress party.

In the meantime, the Congress party, senior partner in the opposition Congress-INPT combine at the state assembly, is leaving no stone unturned to pose legal hurdles against the National Socialist Party of Tripura (NSPT) through the Guwahati High Court. The NSPT is currently controlling the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (ADC) with outside support from the CPI(M).

The recent spurt of extremist attacks has also come in the backdrop of the arrest of a few ATTF extremists in the neighbouring Bangladesh and the seizure of a huge cache of high powered explosives and live bullets by the Bangladesh police.

In protest against these killings, the Left Front Committee and the CPI(M) organised dawn to dusk bandhs in Mohanpur and Hejamara blocks of Sadar subdivision. Another bandh was observed in Lembucherra area on August 14 to protest against extremist killing of activists of the Left and democratic movements a day before.

Condemning the extremist carnage against innocent and poor toiling masses, the CPI(M) state secretariat blamed the centre for this carnage. The secretariat said it was the centre that withdrew its security forces from Tripura, leading to the winding up of several security outposts from sensitive areas and leaving unguarded a sizeable section of the difficult Indo-Bangladesh border terrain in the state. It is this thing that is facilitating trans-border terrorism from 55 camps of the Tripura’s outlawed extremist organisations situated inside the Bangladesh territory. Adequate response if also lacking form the centre to the state government’s demand for diplomatic pressure on the Bangladesh government to bust the camps of the outlawed Tripura extremists inside the Bangladesh territory.

The struggle, however, goes on. In the recent series of spectacular success of security crackdown on extremists with overwhelming popular cooperation, a self-styled ‘sergeant’ of the NLFT was killed in Assam Rifles’ encounter on August 13 morning at the NLFT stronghold Takarjala under Bishalgarh subdivision, West Tripura. The series of block level all-party peace meetings organised by the Left Front government, that started last month, is to be completed by the end of this month. The campaign has evoked massive and avid response from all sections of the people across the political spectrum despite the non-participation of the Congress-INPT combine’s leadership in these meetings. The stage is also set for a massive campaign statewide from August 16 to 31 as part of the countrywide campaign called by the CPI(M) Central Committee. (INN)