Agartala: The banned militant outfit National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) has released five of six poor tribals, who were kidnapped in June last from Rambhadrapara under Nutanbazar police station in South Tripura by the armed rebels.
Official sources said here today that the families of the abducted had paid Rs three lakh for their release, while another person was still kept in the militant hideout in Bangladesh because his family could not pay anything.
However, police had detained them as soon as they were released at Indian territory by the militants and brought them for interrogation that triggered resentment among the villagers.
Police or BSF did not take any initiative for releasing the victims from militant’s captivity but when they got released by paying ransom, police started harassing them, the villagers alleged.
” We had been taken to Bangladesh hideouts and treated well in their custody but we did not find any presence of BSF at the border while going or coming with the militants, ” said Kulendra Reang, one of the released persons, and added that they had seen a long stretch of pours along the border.
Meanwhile, former Congress MLA Jawhar Saha alleged that the role of police and civil administration towards the victims’ families were frustrating because for the past three months the families did not get any support from the government as their sole earning members were kidnapped.
” Despite repeated requests to the DGP and District Magistrate, no administrative action was taken, which virtually compelled the families to take private loan to pay the ransom. Since another family could not manage the ransom, he is still in the captivity, ” Mr Saha rued and alleged that unnecessarily now the released persons were being harassed in the police custody. (UNI)
