4 BNLF militants nabbed

Agartala, Apr 21: The Assam Rifles jawans nabbed four top ranking Bru National Liberation Front of Mizoram (BNLF) leaders, from Tripura's North Tripura district last evening.

Official sources today said the 36 Assam Rifles jawans on a tip off raided a village at Phuldongsai, close to neighbouring Mizoram border, under Kanchanpur sub-division and captured the top ranking rebels belonging to the underground Reang tribals outfit. All the nabbed militants were later handed over to the Mizoram police.

The sources said there was no encounter between the BNLF militants and the security forces. With the capturing of these four top ranking BNLF rebels, the stalemate over the repatriation of reang tribals from Tripura's North District to Mizoram is expected to end smoothly.

A large number of Reang tribals from Mizoram took shelter in North Tripura District's Kanchanpur sub-division following ethnic violence between the Mizos and Reang tribals a few years back.

Earlier, a large number of BNLF militants had laid down arms and ammunition in Kanchanpur before the Assam Rifles and returned to the mainstream.

The captured rebel leaders are-- Vanlal Liana, ,Varmama,, Ronawia Meska, and Lallawma self-styled president, vice-president,chief of army staff and captain of the underground BNLF.

UNI