Four arrested PLA militants taken to Manipur

AGARTALA - Four arrested separatists of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were Saturday taken from Tripura capital Agartala to Manipur, where the outfit is based.

“A five-member Manipur police team came here to take back the rebels. We briefed the Manipur police officials about the information gathered during interrogation of the detainees,” Deputy Superintendent of Police (central) Harimohan Das told IANS.

The four PLA guerrillas of Manipur were arrested in Agartala last week after they sneaked into the state from Bangladesh.

“During questioning, the militants told the police that they went to Srimangal in Bangladesh in early November last year through a clandestine route,” Das said.

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

According to Border Security Force (BSF) and intelligence wing officials, 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 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.