People's Democracy

 TRIPURA

 Assam Rifles Guns Down “Cut-Throat” Extremist

IN a pre-dawn encounter in Jampuijala-Tarakjala area on September 5, Assam Rifles jawans gunned down a notorious NLFT extremist who had been a terror in Tarakjala area under Bishalgarh subdivision of West Tripura district. Incidentally, this gives a lie to the absurd allegation recently made by of the union minister of state for home, Swami Chinmayanand, that the Tripura government has not been properly utilising the central security forces already stationed in the state to effectively combat insurgency.

It will be noted that Swami Chinmayanand had labeled this absurd allegation against the Left Front government as part of a political rhetoric at a hastily convened press briefing at the end of his last month’s visit of two spots of extremist genocide under Khowai subdivision, West Tripura. (See People’s Democracy, September 7.) The union minister’s aim behind labeling this allegation was to derive political mileage for the BJP and to divert the people’s attention from the misdeed of the centre that has turned a blind eye to the state government’s repeated demand for adequate central assistance for effectively combating insurgency in Tripura.

Acting on a specific intelligence report, the Assam Rifles jawans positioned themselves at three places of Jampuijala after midnight, besides combing some other spots in the area. At about 3.30 a m, however, gunmen of the outlawed extremist organisation NLFT got wind of the danger and opened fire on the Assam Rifles jawans who were lying in wait at Sankatrampara to nab the extremists. In the retaliating fire opened by the jawans, an extremist was killed but his associates could make good their escape in the dark. The killed extremist called Ranjit Debbarma was nicknamed “cut-throat” in Tarakjala area due to the charge of a total 21 brutal murders against him since the year 1996 till last month. Most of his victims were CPI(M) leaders, activists and supporters. The inhabitants of the extremist stranglehold of Tarakjala have now heaved a sigh of relief after the death of Ranjit Debbarma. Incidentally, Tarakjala is one of the few assembly constituencies where the Congress party’s ally and NLFT’s overground political wing, the INPT, was successful in hijacking the assembly election last February with the help of extremist guns. In Tripura overall, however, people foiled this game plan of the Congress-INPT combine and formed the fifth Left Front government. (INN)