People's Democracy

ON January 13 evening, suspected NLFT extremists shot and hacked to death 16 poor and innocent people and grievously injured 11 others, including women and children, in a non-decrepit market place of Singicherra, about 3 km from Khowai town in West Tripura district. This was the first major massacre of non-tribal people since the run-up to the last ADC polls held in May 2000.

The NLFT extremists were no doubt bolstered by the pre-poll alliance that the Congress, the main opposition party in the state, has entered with the IPFT, the political wing of the outlawed extremist organisation NLFT. (See People’s Democracy, January 13.) The IPFT is currently ruling the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (ADC).

At about 6 p m on Sunday, a group of uniformed extremists, armed with automatic firearms and other sharp weapons, raided the tiny market place of Singicherra. The market consists of just a handful of makeshift shops and caters to the needs of extremely poor people of the labouring classes living in the adjoining area. The random firing and hacking by the extremists left 12 people killed on the spot and several others injured. The victims ranged from 6 to 60 years in age. Out of the injured who were rescued and hospitalised, 4 succumbed to their injuries on their way to the hospital. Another 11 are under treatment at G B hospital, Agartala; 9 of them are in a precarious condition. Among the dead, 4 were women and one a girl child. It was learnt that all of them, with one single exception, were actively associated with the CPI(M).

According to an eyewitness account, on that fateful Sunday, the number of people in the tiny market was more than usual due to the Makara Sankranti festival on the next day. The people first mistook the uniformed extremists for Assam Rifles jawans who are in charge of security in the area. The whole area is infested by two outlawed extremist outfits --- the NLFT and the ATTF.

The CPI(M) state secretariat has vehemently condemned the inhuman extremist attack on innocent villagers as a desperate and dastardly attempt of the anti-Left Front forces to sow tension and terror in Tripura. This, according to the CPI(M), was a sequel to the recent endeavour of the leadership of the Congress, Trinamul Congress, TUJS and others to clinch an electoral alliance with the outlawed extremists on the eve of the February 21 parliamentary by-poll to the Tripura West constituency.

The CPI(M) has also blamed the centre for the crime. The centre has refused to concede the state’s demand to send even a single army battalion to the state, despite the knowledge that extremists are carrying out attacks here from across the borders with Bangladesh.

Incidentally, the Congress has already into an alliance with the NLFT’s political wing, IPFT, in a bid to re-enact the hijacking of the ADC by the IPFT at gunpoint. It will be recalled that the IPFT had unleashed a campaign of terror and tension in the mixed-population areas and terrorised the tribals during the run-up to the last ADC elections.

The state Left Front committee organised a dawn to dusk statewide bandh on January 15 to protest against the extremist genocide at Singicherra and against the recent unholy alliance of the Congress, the Trinamul Congress, the BJP, the TUJS with extremists as well as to press for busting the extremists camps situated in Bangladesh territory, for sending adequate para-military forces as per requisition of the state government and for taking effective measures to strengthen border security in Tripura.

The bandh has been total and trouble-free statewide. On January 14, intense campaign was conducted through out the state as part of preparations for the bandh. Many street corner meetings were held. They voiced the vehement protest of the people against extremists and their accomplices. (INN)