Abducted Tripura tribals taken to Bangladesh

AGARTALA - Outlawed tribal extremists who abducted 11 tribals Tuesday have taken nine of the hostages to Bangladesh and released two, police said here Friday. The militants have demanded a ransom of Rs.15 lakh to release the captives.

According to the police, heavily armed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) militants raided a labourers’ temporary shed at Govindabari village Tuesday night and kidnapped 11 workers at gunpoint. The labourers had a contract to construct a bridge on Chawmanu rivulet on Chawmanu-Govindabari highway in northern Tripura.

“The NLFT rebels have taken away the hostages to the neighbouring Chittagong hill tracts of south-east Bangladesh as there is no fencing in certain portion of India-Bangladesh border of that area,” Tripura Director General of Police K. Saleem Ali told reporters.

“All necessary steps have been taken to release them,” said the police chief. India’s Border Security Force has sought help of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) to rescue the captives.

The 856-km-long India-Bangladesh border with Tripura is just four kilometres from the Govindabari village, 175 km north of state capital Agartala.

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 Bangladesh, which surrounds the northeastern state in almost in four sides except small porting linking Tripura with Assam and Mizoram.