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Shoot-at-sight orders in West Tripura

Shoot-at-sight orders were issued today at Jirania in West Tripura district after ethnic violence erupted after two non-tribals were killed in an extremist attack..

The banned National Liberation Front of Tripura guerrillas gunned down two persons working in a paddy field at Radhamohanpur this morning, official sources said.

A violent mob attacked tribals and some vehicles in the areas soon after the incident. District authorities clamped a 24-hour curfew from 11.30 am in Jirania.

Additional security forces have been deployed in the violence-hit area and a combing operation has been launched, the police said.

Jirania was under curfew for eight days following a series of ethnic violence last month. More than 15,000 people were affected and many fled their homes and took shelter in relief camps.

Meanwhile, the Assam and Tripura police nabbed a hardcore NLFT militant from Patharkandi in Assam's Karimganj district yesterday.

Superintendent of police of North Tripura district Nepal Das said that the operation was launched early yesterday and that the militant was nabbed from a hideout at Patharkandi, 25 km away from the Assam-Tripura border.

Das said the Assam and Tripura police earlier decided to launch the joint operation following a high-level meeting at Karimganj on April 3. Accordingly, the joint operation was launched recently and it would continue, he said.

Central Reserve Police Force personnel will also participate in the joint operation, Das said.

He said the meeting also decided to strengthen the co-ordination between police of the two states by exchanging necessary information and intelligence about the movement and activities of underground extremists.

An official report said the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Issac Muivah and insurgents of the United Liberation Front of Asom were helping the NLFT and the All Tripura Tiger Force.

Besides these two banned outfits, the NSCN (IM) and the ULFA had conducted a series of attacks in Tripura and in the Barak valley of Assam, the report said, adding that tea gardens, security forces and civilians were the main targets.

Several shelter camps had been set up by the north-east outfits inside the Bangladesh territory where they were receiving arms training, the report said. Common topographical and geographical situation of the north-east favoured the militants, it said.

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