Rebel camps still exist in Bangladesh, says Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar

Some camps of Tripura rebels from state still exist in Bangladesh, say the chief minister of the northeastern Indian state.

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar says the present Bangladesh government has taken strong action against these rebels but some camps have managed to survive in remote areas of the country.

"We cannot afford to be complacent. The rebels still have some camps in Bangladesh and though less than before, they can cause us damage," he said during the inauguration of Police Week 2017.

Sarkar said separatist militancy has come down in Tripura as much due to firm action by the current Bangladesh government as due to deployment of sufficient number of Indian border guards.

Manik Sarkar. File photo

He added that other than action against Indian militants other factors adding to the reduction of insurgency in Tripura is the rising of border fencing along Bangladesh and deployment of adequate number of border guards.

“There was a time when our international border was totally open and the number of border guards inadequate. But now, more than three-fourth of the international border has been fenced with barbed wire and eighteen battalions of BSF have been deployed."

Sarkar said the strength of Tripura State Rifles and police has also increased substantially.

But he said the Tripura militants and those from other northeast Indian states were taking advantage of the relative absence of the Bangladesh security forces in remote areas, particularly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Militant camps dwindle: Tripura DGP
 
Camps of Tripura militants operating in Bangladesh have drastically come down, State Police Director General K Nagra says.
 

At a press conference at the police headquarters on Wednesday, he said: “In Bangladesh, according to information, there are still some camps. There are various versions about the presence of camps but it has dwindled, far fewer in number.”

“As you are aware that the talks are still on and they have not been discontinued so whenever the next round of talks is, probably we will make some progress.”

The DGP said in the last one year, there was no militant-related incident but there has been a good number of surrender of militants taking place, most of them decamping from Bangladesh and depositing sophisticated arms and ammunition," Nahar added.