Three militants surrender in Tripura

Agartala, April 17: Three tribal guerrillas who fled from their Bangladeshi hideout surrendered to the Tripura Police, officials said here on Sunday. Garam Reang, Dasai Reang and Salendra Reang, belonging to the tiol Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), surrendered in Kanchanpur in northern Tripura on Saturday night, a police official said. They told the police they recently fled from the NLFT camps at Sapchari in Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeast Bangladesh.

According to them, more NLFT cadres from Bangladesh were likely to surrender, the official added. Twelve NLFT rebels with a huge quantity of arms and ammunition surrendered to the Tripura Police chief K. garaj on April 11. They also escaped from the same NLFT den in Bangladesh.

Police officials said the three militants had fled along with the previous 12 ultras but could not surrender together, as they had entered Tripura through different routes.

NLFT cadres and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) militants undergo arms training in hideouts in Bangladesh, which shares an 856–km border with Tripura.

Banned in 1997 by the union home ministry, the two outfits advocate secession of Tripura from India. However, ATTF has become almost defunct due to the surrender of most of its cadres. (IANS)