Four Manipuri militants held in Agartala

AGARTALA - Four suspected militants of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur were arrested in the Tripura capital after they sneaked into the northeastern state from Bangladesh, police said here Friday.

Acting on a tip-off, the Tripura police detained the four in the capital city Thursday night after they illegally crossed over to western Tripura from Bangladesh and attempted to leave for Guwahati in Assam in a hired vehicle.

“We are interrogating the suspected terrorists and collecting information about them from Manipur,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (central) Harimohan Das.

“During preliminary questioning, the youths told the police that they went to Srimangal in Bangladesh in early November to participate in a religious function. However, we are trying to verify their statements,” Das told IANS.

In July last year, police in Tripura had arrested seven members of the Manipur based People’s United Liberation Front (PULF), including their self-styled army chief Mohammad Abdur Rahman from Agartala. That time too the guerrillas had come from Bangladesh.

According to officials of the Border Security Force (BSF) and intelligence wing, with Bangladeshi security forces continuing their crackdown on militants belonging to northeast India, hundreds of terrorists, including women cadre, have fled from that country and either surrendered to Indian authorities or had taken shelter in safer places in other neighbouring countries.

Militants belonging to various rebel groups in the northeast region had set up about 100 camps and hideouts in different parts of Bangladesh, specially Sylhet district and Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) bordering India’s Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya states.