Agartala (Tripura) : Eight militants of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) laid down their arms before Tripura police on Sunday.
The militants of the Biswamohan faction decamped from their base camp at Khagracheri in the Chittagong Hill Tracks (CHT) of Bangladesh.
According to police source during the wee hours the militants have reportedly crossed the border and surrendered before the Superintendent of Police, Special Branch (SP SB) Arindam Nath and BSF in fence gate of border out post Sewarmapara under Anandbazar police station of remote Kanchanpur sub-division in North Tripura, around 230 Km from here.
At present NLFT (BM) outfit is facing scarcity of funds and the condition of lower cadres is miserable. The frequent joint operations of BD Army and BGB in Rangamati and Khagrachari districts and proposed establishment of new proposed BOPs of BGB in Chittagong Hill Tracts are also creating a huge problem to the outfit for free movement in Bangladesh.
The militants have been identified as Halongsa Tripura alis Khalangsa, Laxmanjoy Tripura alis Nandaranifa, Tarun Mohan Tripura, Mritumjo Tripura, Debsingh Reang, Mojoiram Reang, Kusum Tripura and Bijay Debbarma.
The militants deposited one AK 47 rifle, one INSAS rifle, one G3 rifle, one Fusil Automatique rifle and one SLR, magazines, huge quantity of ammunition and two Chinese grenades.
The militants had returned along with their family members, though their number could not be confirmed.
The surrender is a big jolt to the NLFT especially at a time when the organization is plagued with weak finances, disillusioned cadres and frequent rifts within itself.
According to the Tripura government at present there are no militant camp in Tripura and only few militants of the NLFT who did not come back to normal life and live across the border and keep changing their location under the pressure of the Bangladesh security forces especially in the CHT.
Tripura has 856 km border with Bangladesh and around eight five percent of it has been fenced by barbed wire except few pockets in the densely populated and difficult terrains where work is under progress. (ANI)