13 militants surrender to authorities

Agartala, Apr 1 (UNI) At least 13 militants of various Tripura based underground outfits have surrendered in the last one week.

The militants, who surrendered to security forces last week, were mostly from the banned underground outfit of All Tripura Tiger Force (ATF), who had deserted their camps in Bangladesh owing to a food and financial crisis and the ill-treatment meted out to their leaders.

Some of them also belonged to both the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).

The surrender of these militants had assumed great significance as election for the 60 seated Assembly is scheduled early next year.

However, the newly appointed Director General of Police K T D Singh stated that though the militants have surrendered they might intensify their activities since the Assembly polls were nearing.

The security forces including Assam Rifles, CRPF, Tripura State Rifles (TSR) and state police in a joint anti-insurgency operations had earned positive results so far.

Meanwhile, BSF in the bordering areas were keeping a close vigil to check sneaking of the militants into the state from across the border, official sources said.

The State Level Co-ordination Committee in a meeting had decided that the security foces would exchange informations regarding the insurgent activities and launch joint anti-insurgency operation whenever required.

According to a report, the NLFT (BM) and ATTF had planned to intensify their activities in the state's various remote areas keeping in view the coming election.

UNI