Agartala, Sep 1 (IANS) Separatist guerrillas have abducted five tribal villagers in northern Tripura and demanded that each household in their village cough up a sum of Rs.1,000 for their release, police said here Wednesday.
Militants of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) kidnapped the farmers Sunday night from Boalkhali, a tribal hamlet in northern Tripura’s Dhalai district bordering the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeast Bangladesh. As the place was very remote, the incident was reported to police Tuesday night.
‘The tribal farmers, all aged between 40 and 43, were guarding their ‘jhum’ crops (meant for slash-and-burn cultivation) atop the hills at Boalkhali when a group of heavily armed terrorists raided the region and kidnapped them at gunpoint,’ director general of Tripura police Pranay Sahaya told reporters.
Troopers of the Border Security Force (BSF) and Tripura State Rifles led by senior police officials have launched a search operation.
According to a district police official, the NLFT militants have sent a note to the village chief seeking a huge ransom.
‘All 250 families of the Boalkhali village have to pay Rs.1,000 as financial support to the outfit and only after the amount is paid will the hostages be released,’ police said.
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.
The militancy has been tamed to a large extent in the northeastern state of Tripura. According to an official document, over 8,200 tribal guerrillas have surrendered to the authorities since 1993.
