Official killed in militant ambush in Tripura
By IANSMonday, January 31, 2011
AGARTALA - A central government official from Andhra Pradesh was killed and his driver critically injured when separatist tribal guerrillas fired at their car from across the India-Bangladesh border in northern Tripura Monday, police said.
“National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) official G.N. Mani, 51, was gunned down and his car driver was injured when outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) militants fired on them at Chayapara village on the border,” Tripura Police spokesman Tushar Kanti Das told reporters.
The NBCC is a public sector undertaking under the ministry of urban development and is engaged in border fencing works along the India-Bangladesh border along with other central and state government agencies.
The heavily armed NLFT extremists fired from across the India-Bangladesh border when the official was supervising the border fencing works.
“Immediately after the firing, the rebels disappeared in the jungles deep inside adjoining Bangladesh territory,” Das said.
Senior police and civil officials have visited the spot, 175 km north of here.
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 from three sides.
