People's Democracy

 AIDWA Condemns Tripura Massacre

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has strongly condemned the heinous attack on two predominantly scheduled caste hamlets in the Khowai district of Tripura by armed groups belonging to the All Tripura Tiger Force. Thirteen women and six children are among the thirty brutally killed. The attack took place almost simultaneously in two villages at Daspara under Kalyanpur police station and Baralunga under Teliamura police station.

According to an AIDWA statement issued from New Delhi on August 15, the terrorist groups are getting more and more isolated from the people, and more so from the tribal communities whose interests they claim to represent, and that is why they are resorting to desperate measures to destablise the situation. The AIDWA has also deplored the central government that, in spite of repeated requests by the state government, it has still not deployed the army in the disturbed area. Moreover, even as different terrorist groups in the north east are coordinating their activities, the central government has, instead of responding to the situation, actually withdrawn security forces. In addition, it has shown apparent unconcern about the continuing use of camps across the Bangladesh border by the terrorist groups. The groups are armed with the most sophisticated weapons including rocket launchers. The result of the central government’s myopia is the heavy price being paid by the victims of the terrorist attacks, including innocent women and children, from communities that are counted among the poorest in the region.

The AIDWA statement further said the state is being ill served by the Congress, the main opposition party. Instead of putting up united resistance to the terrorists, the Congress is adopting double standards. While in Kashmir it calls for a united effort against terrorists, in Tripura it has demanded central intervention against the Left Front state government. Such petty politicking can only help those who are out to weaken national unity.

Expressing deep sympathy with the families of those killed, the AIDWA has demanded that the central government heed to the request of the state government for more forces in the disturbed areas and also to guard the border with Bangladesh. It is essential that the central government immediately take up the matter with the Bangladesh government so as to ensure that the terrorist camps operating from Bangladesh territory are shut down.

The AIDWA has asked all its state committees to protest against the massacre of women and children and to demand that the central government send adequate forces to Tripura. The specific demands the AIDWA has raised in this context are: (1) intervention at the highest level with the Bangladesh government to close down the terrorist camps in that country; (2) deployment of the army in the disturbed areas in Tripura; (3) augmentation of the BSF battalions on the border; and (4) completion of the border fencing job in a specific time frame. (INN)