Militants abduct 11 labourers in Tripura

AGARTALA - Separatist guerrillas have abducted 11 labourers from a bridge construction site in a village in Tripura, police said here Wednesday.

“Heavily armed NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura) militants raided a labourers’ temporary shed at Govindabari village Tuesday night and kidnapped 11 workers at gunpoint while others managed to escape,” police spokesman Nepal Das told reporters.

“The NLFT rebels might have taken the captives into neighbouring Bangladesh territory as the India-Bangladesh border is just four kilometres from the spot,” he added.

Govindabari village is some 175 km north of here.

The state government has asked the Border Security Force (BSF) to take appropriate steps to rescue the hostages, all tribals.

The labourers were engaged by a contractor to construct a bridge on Chawmanu rivulet on Chawmanu-Govindabari highway.

Troopers of the BSF and Tripura State Rifles led by senior police officials have launched a search operation to rescue the labourers.

Police suspect that the extremists might have kidnapped the labourers for ransom.

Director General of Police (Tripura) K.Saleem Ali and Deputy Inspector General (northern range) Punit Rastogi are supervising the counter-insurgency operations and rescue of the tribals, an official said.

The banned NLFT, along with another outlawed outfit All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), has been fighting for an independent tribal homeland in Tripura and operates out of neighbouring Bangladesh, which shares an 856-km border with Tripura.

Militancy has been tamed to a large extent in Tripura. According to an official document, over 8,200 tribal guerrillas have surrendered to authorities since 1993.

The total number of surrendered militants of NLFT and ATTF outfits rose to around 140 this year.