Author:
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: February 23 2001
The outlawed National Liberation
Front of Tripura has admitted that its policy of forced conversion of Hindu
tribals to Christianity had backfired. The outfit also blamed a former
advisor for its religious policy.
The admission came in the form of
a statement faxed to a local daily, which said religious insurgency had
created rumblings of dissent among NLFT cadre. This also resulted in "senior
commander" Nayanbasi Jamatya deserting the outfit along with a few followers.
In the statement issued yesterday,
NLFT's "information secretary" M.R. Tuijang blamed its political secretary
and advisor, Joshua alias Jogendra Debbarma, for the religious mission.
He said Joshua had left the outfit
after Nayanbasi and captive Bru National Liberation Front leader Suryamoni
escaped from the outfit's hide-out early this month. "Dif! ferences with
Joshua over the issue of religious policy reached a flashpoint and led
to a clash in which 'lance corporal' V. Mukul was killed...," the statement
read.
The outfit held Nayanbasi Jamatya
responsible for Mukul's killing. The statement added that NLFT rebels -
at the instance of Joshua -made the abortive bid on the life of Jamatya
hoda okra (head priest) Bikram Bahadur Jamatya last year. Apart from converting
Hindu tribals at gunpoint, Joshua had also planned to attack Roman Catholic
Christian minorities. Regarding Nayanbasi's announcement that all the four
RSS pracharaks had been executed, the NLFT said it was "false and we have
nothing to do with it".
However, it is well known that the
four pracharaks were kidnapped by the NLFT and taken across the border
to the outfit's base camp at Thangnan in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of
Bangladesh.
The outfit also charged Nayanbasi
Jamatya with "womanising" and said his wife and children have not been
! taken hostage by the outfit. The family would be handed over to him or
his representatives at any time.
The outfit described Joshua as "politically
over-ambitious". He had joined the outfit after being denied nomination
by the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS), a tribal political party, it
added.
TUJS sources confirmed that Joshua
had served the party for a brief spell. "We had to part ways because of
his schizophrenic ways," a party source added.
Police sources said the NLFT's tell-tale
missive was a form of "nervous reaction" and added that if the RSS activists
were indeed dead, the NLFT "cannot plead ignorance".
Sources said a string of police
operations and the "firm stand" taken by Jamatya leader Bikram Bahadur
Jamatya had cornered the outfit.
