From Our Correspondent
Agartala: The banned outfit-All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) suffered one of the worst jolts after its self-styled supremo Ranjit Debbarma was ‘detained’ by DGFI in Bangladesh recently.
The dreaded rebel leader was sent to judicial custody after he was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) here Thursday.
“I was pushed back by the Bangladeshi security forces Jan 16 through the Dawki India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya. Tripura Police brought me here Jan 18,” Debbarma told reporters while he was being escorted to the court by a heavy contingent of police forces.
However, a senior Tripura Police official told IANS: “Separatist outfit ATTF’s self-styled president was arrested Wednesday. Then senior police and intelligence officials have interrogated him overnight before he was produced in the court.”
Ranjit was brought to the CJM court in a police gypsy to avoid public and media attention.
A specific case was registered against the rebel leader at East police station under section 153(A)/153(B)/120(B)/121(A)/122 IPC & 10/13 U.L.A(P) Act).
Based on the inputs passed by ATTF’s army chief Chitta Debbarma who was surrendered before the Assam Rifles last month, Director General Field Intelligence (DGFI), intelligence wing of Bangladesh Army carried out a secret operation and detained the fugitive from an undisclosed location in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh authority, later, handed the rebel leader over to Indian authority terming him as an intruder, according to highly placed sources.
The ‘arrest’ of the ATTF supremo is seen as significant achievement on the part of security agencies engaged in the state and the Assam Rifles played a vital role in gathering information leading to the detention of the rebel leader.
Founded on July 11, 1990, by a group of former Tripura National Volunteer members under the leadership of Ranjit Debbarma, ATTF was banned by the state government for subversive activities.
Ranjit Debbarma, president of ATTF is a resident of Esrai area under Sidhai police station and son of Krishna Debbarma from that area. ATTF main areas of activities were in the north-eastern part of the state- Sidhai, Khowai and Kamalpur.
Since its inception Satcherri, located just opposite to Mohanpur, about 20 km north of the state capital, had always acted as ATTF’s headquarters which is situated at the house of Jogesh Debbarma, a Tripuri tribal.
An opposition Congress leader in Tripura, Ratan Lal Nath demanded that he be interrogated by NIA (National Investigative Agency). Tripura’s two banned militant outfits – the ATTF and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) – have set up bases in Bangladesh.
Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, some of it unfenced and running through dense forests and mountainous, making it porous and vulnerable and advantageous for the terrorist outfits for their cross-border movements. (With inputs from IANS)