From Our Correspondent
Agartala: With barely few days left for the Independence Day celebration, the state police have got a major breakthrough after a top-ranking rebel leader- Nayabashi Jamatia surrendered to police authority.
Nayanbashi who was in Bangladesh jail sneaked into Indian territory through Malda in West Bengal and landed at Teliamura on Friday evening, according to sources.
From Teliamura, the wanted criminal in several killings went to his home- Trishabari in Khowai district.
Later, his elder brother took Nayanbashi to SDPO Chandan Saha on Friday night where he formally surrendered.
According to police, Nayanbashi looked depressed and critically ill. Soon after the surrender, the rebel leader was taken to Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) of Special Branch for intensive interrogation.
“Nayanbashi, leader of NLFT (N) has surrendered to the SDPO, Teliamura on Friday night. Senior police officers are interrogating him to get details from the surrendered militant”, said Inspector General (Police Control) NC Das here on Saturday.
The police had earlier declared a reward of Rs.1 lakh to anyone who could give information about the whereabouts of the 53-years-old guerrilla leader.
Jamatiya and a large number of cadres had surrendered to the Tripura government in 2006.
But after a year, he returned to terrorism for not finding ‘satisfactory’ the terms of agreement with the state government.
“The militant leader went back to Bangladesh and started an armed militancy for a ‘sovereign Tripura’ afresh. However, his followers stayed behind due to which his new group has been long suffering from both cadre and monetary crisis,” the police official added.
Earlier, in January this year, another top militant leader Ranjit Debbarma, chief of All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), was pushed back by the Bangladeshi security forces after he was arrested in Dhaka in December last year.
Debbarma was facing Interpol’s red corner notice for a number of massacres and other crimes.
The Tripura government in February slapped charges under the National Security Act (NSA) against Debbarma, who had formed ATTF in 1993.
The union home ministry had banned both the NLFT and the ATTF April 3, 1997.
The surrender of Nayabashi is seen as another milestone in the counter insurgency operation in Tripura because of the three top-ranking rebel leaders two- All Tripura Tiger Force’s president Ranjit Debbarma and Nayabashi Jamatai have already been caged.
Ranjit who was heading the ATTF outfit was arrested along Indo-Bangla border early this year. He is now in judicial custody and the state government applied National Security Act (NASA) so that he could not get bail from the court.
Now, one left-out rebel leader is Biswamohan Debbarma who he heading the powerful National Liberation Front of Tripura (BM).
Reports from across the border indicate, Biswamohan is moving around Bangladesh and Myanmar to dodge the law enforcement agencies. However, police here have hopeful of getting him ‘very soon’.
According to police and the Border Security Force officials, the two outlawed outfits – NLFT and ATTF – have set up bases in Bangladesh along with other extremist organisations of northeast India and receive support from separatist groups of the region.
They have been seeking secession of Tripura from India.
Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, some of it unfenced and running through dense forests, making it porous and vulnerable.
Meanwhile, the security has been beefed up across the state to ensure peaceful celebration of the Independence Day celebrations.
According to intelligence inputs, the outlawed group might stage bloody comeback by carrying out attacks on security personnel as well villagers.
Keeping in mind of the security threat, security personnel especially Tripura State Rifles (TSR) and Assam Rifles have been carrying out counter insurgency (CI) operations in sensitive areas round the clock, according to police sources. (With inputs from IANS)