People's Democracy

 TRIPURA

 Extremists Kill Four, Set Market Aflame

ALONG with the outlawed and outcast extremist organisation NLFT that is unleashing last gasp desperate and dastardly vengeful violence on CPI(M) activists and supporters in Tripura, the ATTF, which is the other outlawed anti-national outfit in the state, is of late showing similar signs of despair in the form of repeated high-profile ambushes on the security forces.

Incidentally, after the INPT, the NLFT’s political wing, suffered a vertical split with the formation of a new party called the NSPT, the former has been ousted from power in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (ADC), with the CPI(M) supporting the NSPT here from outside and conditionally. At the same time, under the CPI(M)’s leadership, the Tripura people and especially the tribals have been putting up ceaseless and strident resistance to insurgency, which has dealt severe blows to the NLFT. However, there has been no report showing that any of the sanctuaries of these outlawed extremist outfits in Bangladesh territory has been busted. On the contrary, according to recent intelligence reports, high-powered arms, ammunition and explosives have reached the ATTF via Bangladesh.

On November 14 afternoon, the ATTF carried out an ambush on two BSF vehicles with high-powered explosives, killing on the spot a BSF deputy commandant and his driver and grievously injuring four BSF jawans, at Joshi Tilla in Kamalpur subdivision of Dhalai district, adjoining the Bangladesh border. The attack came exactly a month after the ATTF killed three CRPF jawans and the driver of their vehicle on the arterial Assam-Agartala national highway on October 14.

In their latest attack, the ATTF extremists detonated a high-powered explosive device at about 5.15 p m on November 14 through remote control and also opened fire simultaneously. This explosion on a sharp turn of the border road left a huge crater on the spot and shattered beyond recognition the motor vehicle at the rear and two bodies of the BSF personnel occupying it. A BSF deputy commandant and his associate jawans, occupying the front vehicle, stopped their vehicle immediately and retaliated, but the extremists made good their escape across the border into Bangladesh territory. Four BSF jawans occupying the rear vehicle were grievously injured in the explosion and were hospitalised. Led by top police officers of the subdivision, a reinforcement of the police launched a manhunt immediately after receiving information of the ambush.

Earlier, in an attack on the same morning, NLFT extremists accosted tribal supporters of the CPI(M), Pakhi Mog (60) and Thaiangfru Mog (50), fathers of two special police officers (SPOs) to an extremist infested remote village called West Karbook under Amarpur subdivision in South Tripura district, dragged them into a jungle and brutally hacked them to death. The reason of the NLFT’s ire against these SPOs has been that the latter have an excellent track record against the extremists. Moreover, most of the tribals of Karbook, including the two CPI(M) supporters who were killed on November 14, have been waging a relentless and dauntless war on insurgency. This included a stop to the payment of extortive subscriptions to the extremists.

A similar failure of their extortion drive drove a group of 8 to 10 NLFT extremists, armed with sophisticatedly weapons, to raid the Anurampara market in Santirbazar, South Tripura, on November 14 afternoon and set aflame this market of impoverished tribals. The extremists also fired at a small shopkeeper but missed the target. The chairman of the local village committee, who belonged to the CPI(M), has been untraceable since the incident. In the ADC areas, a village committee is the equivalent of a gaon panchayat.

Through separate statements, the CPI(M) state secretariat and the acting chief minister Anil Sarkar have vehemently condemned the November 14 extremist attacks. The CPI(M) said the extremists sheltered in Bangladesh territory ambushed the BSF vehicles in order to block the drive of setting up security outposts along the border. At the same time, the murderous attacks on CPI(M) supporters and fathers of SPO jawans as also on innocent and poor tribal villagers are an outcome of the despair that has gripped the imperialist-backed NLFT extremists who are on the run in Tripura.

On November 15, a total bandh was observed throughout the Karbook area at the call of the CPI(M), in the midst of severe resentment against extremists that engulfed the area immediately after the spread of information of the brutal slaughter of two aged and innocent  tribals there. (INN)