Author: Kalyan Chaudhuri
Publication: Frontline
Date: May 24 - June 06, 2003
URL: http://www.flonnet.com/fl2011/stories/20030606001705000.htm
Introduction: Insurgents operating
from their bases in Bangladesh strike terror in three non- tribal border
villages of Tripura.
A round of ruthless attacks in Tripura
in early May claimed the lives of 32 people, including seven children and
eight women. Militants belonging to the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF)
and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) launched simultaneous
attacks on three predominantly Bengali villages in West Tripura as part
of their efforts to get all post-1949 non-tribal residents vacated from
the hilly regions of the State. What is particularly disturbing is the
fact that the assailants came from across the Bangladesh border and returned
with impunity after carrying out the armed action. The banned insurgent
groups were reported to have vowed to annihilate non-tribal people.
On May 7, a heavily armed group
of the ATTF attacked the border village of Jogeswar Nagar at Simna in West
Tripura and killed 20 Bengali village residents. The following night, NLFT
insurgents raided the Mahurchar market in West Tripura and killed nine
people. In yet another incident, Rasamala Devbarma, 53, a tribal woman
and leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), was hacked to death
by NLFT rebels at Ashrambari in West Tripura. On May 7, NLFT insurgents
gunned down CPI(M) activist Nilimesh Paul and his wife Alpana Paul at Fatik
Ray in Kailashar subdivision of North Tripura.
The Jogeswar Nagar attack, the worst
of its kind in the State in recent years, bordered on the macabre. The
attack, which was part of a revived campaign of vendetta against the Bengali
settlers in the area, was carried out by a joint team of ATTF militants
and criminals from Satchari in Bangladesh, where the organisation has its
headquarters. "The attackers did not come merely to kill; they were bent
on killing in a brutal manner, sack the village and loot the houses,''
said Dhananjay Sarkar, the only survivor in a five-member family. He was
not at home that day. Reliving the horror, Amalesh Sarkar, another resident
of the village, said, "It was around midnight. An armed gang of nearly
100 insurgents and criminals swooped down on the village, set fire to huts
and rained bullets on the residents who rushed out in panic. Those who
survived the gunfire were hacked to death. Several children were hurled
into the burning houses or shot from close range during the hour-long mayhem.''
After the massacre, the rebels and
their henchmen are believed to have returned to their base at Satchari.
The site of the carnage is 45 km from Agartala. The Indo-Bangladesh border
and a Border Security Force (BSF) outpost are 500 metres away. Across the
border is Habigunj district of Bangladesh where the ATTF has its base.
Although an all-party team of legislators
visited Simna the day after the incident and assured the village residents
of proper security arrangements, this hardly restored the people's confidence.
The ATTF insurgents are running a training and operation camp at Satchari,
which is visible from this side of the border. What is worrying the village
residents most is the fact that the Bangladesh nationals, who are believed
to be fundamentalists, are operating jointly with the insurgents. Local
CPI(M) legislator and Forest Minister Pranab Devbarma, the first leader
to visit Jogeswar Nagar after the carnage, said the massacre seemingly
had the blessings of certain foreign agencies that were trying to create
ethnic tension in the region.
A group of Jogeswar Nagar residents
stated that they had rushed to the BSF outpost to inform the personnel
there of the attack but that the personnel reached the spot only after
one hour although the flames from the burning huts would have been visible
from the BSF post and the gunshots were loud. According to this version,
there was no attempt on the part of the BSF to intercept the attackers,
and the killer gang returned to Bangladesh unchallenged.
Ever since the CPI(M)-led Left Front
won the State Assembly elections for the fifth time in a row in February
this year, the extremists have upped the ante. Even the constituents of
their supposed support base - the tribal people - were not spared. They
were attacked for supporting the Left Front and helping it attain a two-thirds
majority in the 60-member Assembly. Clearly, the NLFT has become desperate
ever since its political wing, the Indigenous National Party of Tripura
(INPT), could manage to win only five of the 20 reserved seats in the elections.
Going by the nature of their armed
action, it is clear that the ATTF and the NLFT are openly secessionist
and are hell-bent on ousting the non-tribal people settled in the hills.
This amounts to terrorism, and the Centre can least afford to ignore it.
The Left Front government has repeatedly drawn the Centre's attention to
this fact.
The situation is grave enough to
warrant the return of Army units that were withdrawn from the State in
the wake of the Kargil conflict. After the latest carnage, Chief Minister
Manik Sarkar urged Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to deploy additional
forces, including all Army battalions that were withdrawn. While apprising
him of the brutal manner in which the ATTF militants had killed innocent
people, Manik Sarkar urged Advani not to pull back the forces that were
deployed during the Assembly elections on February 26. Advani did not make
a commitment, but was reported to have promised "suitable action".
CPI(M) Members of Parliament raised
the Tripura incident in both Houses of Parliament. In reply, Finance Minister
Jaswant Singh assured them in the Rajya Sabha that the Home Ministry was
seized of the issue and that it would "take suitable action".
The Chief Ministers of the seven
northeastern States have repeatedly asked the Centre to consider the region's
insurgency as a national problem and find a solution as a matter of national
priority. They have already formed a forum to discuss issues of mutual
interest and to place their demands before the Centre unitedly. The forum
approved the decision to put pressure on the Centre to take effective measures
to deal with the escalating insurgency in the region.
Aided by the Inter-Services Intelligence
of Pakistan, insurgents in the northeastern States, especially Tripura,
are alleged to have been using Bangladesh, where they have their "soft
hideouts", as their base. The government of Tripura has sent a report to
the Centre on the basis of definite information that the militant outfits
have been exploiting the porous border with Bangladesh to plan their activities
and buy arms. According to the report, "outfits like ATTF and the NLFT
buy arms, ammunition and modern communication gadgets from Southeast Asian
countries, such as Singapore and Thailand, and collect them in Bangkok..."
Identifying the route which these
illegal consignments take before reaching Tripura, the report says: "The
consignments are loaded into either ships or trawlers in Chittagong, which
is the bordering district of Bangladesh, and transported into Tripura.
These consignments are off-loaded in the districts of Dholai, South Tripura
and North Tripura and they reach various parts of north-east via land route
through dense ravines. Tripura is the corridor for pushing arms into the
north-east."
The report contains specific details
about the militant outfits that have their bases in Bangladesh, a list
of 45 hideouts across the border, and how they purchase and supply arms
to separatists in the region. Most of the 45 hideouts are situated in Sylhet
and Chittagong districts of Bangladesh. "I have repeatedly requested the
Centre to take up the matter with the Bangladesh government. I do not know
why the Centre is not serious about the matter," Manik Sarkar said.
