Tripura cop multitasking as militant held

Two militants of the banned NLFT were arrested from Tripura’s capital Agartala Friday evening.

8th battalion of Assam Rifles (AR) and police jointly arrested them red-handed from a residential area in the state capital while they were trying to collect extortion money.

Surprisingly, one of the arrested militants Jotish Debbarma, during interrogation claimed himself to be a police constable.

Presently he was posted as personal guard (PG) of an opposition Congress Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Tripura.

The other militant was identified as Indrajoy Reang a resident of Kanchanpur in North Tripura.

Five fake Indian currency notes of Rs 1000 denomination, extortion letters, two mobile sets and incriminating documents were found on their possession.

During preliminary interrogation, Indrajoy informed that he had been working as over ground agent of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) Biswamohan Debbarma fraction.

“The militants were engaged in collecting extortion money for the outfit and pumping in fake notes for their bosses who lived across the border in Bangladesh,” said an AR official on condition of anonymity.

He added that the militants were running short of fund and the cadres were also working hard to rejuvenate the group before the ensuing Autonomous District Council election scheduled early next year.

Tribal insurgency is more than three decades old in Tripura. Recently the state has achieved peace especially after the India-friendly Awami League government in Bangladesh led by Sheikh Hasina promised ‘zero tolerance toward militancy’, and cracked down heavily on the Indian militants holed up in Bangladesh.