Agartala, Sep 25, 2024, By Our Correspondent
As many as 584 militants- barring a few all are allegedly ‘fake’ staged a ‘surrender’ before Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Tuesday at 7th Bn TSR headquarters. They laid down 168 fire arms- most of which were also reported to have been ‘arranged’. As the figure stands, 416 so called ‘militants’ belonging to the NLFT and ATTF ‘surrendered’ bare hands. According to the militant leaders and officials ‘few hundred’ more would be coming soon.
And they all would be given financial assistance from a special Rs 250 crore package.
The surrender was staged following a ‘Memorandum of Settlement’ signed in Delhi recently in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha, MP Biplab Kumar Deb and Pradyot Kishore Debbarma, TIPRA Motha chief, Intelligence Bureau Chief Tapan Deka, his colleague Rajesh Kambli and MHA Advisor AK Mishra.
The signing of MoS and Tuesday’s surrender were being touted as the end of militancy in the state, though it was a known fact that militancy had virtually ended in Tripura about 15 years ago –and Tripura Police had also got President’s Colour for the remarkable success.
Only handful of old cadres who had nowhere to go or revive the militancy were spending their idle time in Bangladesh and trying to manage a chance to stage a sort of surrender. They were desperate to come over ground and for this rarely they would carry out one or two small incidents to send a message to the government about their presence. They were keen to make a living in politics. Some local politicians did not want to miss the opportunity and moved the Union government which was more than happy to oblige.
“The whole exercise turns out a farce as 584 were shown ‘militants’ and that some hundreds more were reported to be readying for ‘return’. Where on earth were so many militants? Even at the peak time of militancy there were not so many militants belonging to both the organizations. And now they are all simply banner- only outfit”.
‘Fact is there were only 22 NLFT militants who were ‘listed’ , two others were ‘recycled’ characters- which means they had surrendered before also and after getting financial package went back to militancy and are now surrendering again”.
“For ATTF less said is better. There were hardly 17 ‘listed’ ones as their president Ranjit Debbarma himself was pushed back by Bangladesh authority and brought here by TSR officials from Meghalaya decades ago. Released on bail he joined Tipra Motha and now an elected MLA. Where were these militants then ?”, said an informed source adding that a simple RTI for the identities of the ‘surrendered militants’ and their ‘acts’ that would have made them ‘listed’ would throw open the entire ‘drama’ in front of the public.
Despite all that peace talks the ‘surrender’ sparked adverse reactions among the common people, including a large section of ruling BJP’s Janajati Morcha activists. Many felt that government by reviving the ‘image’ of the inactive militants and listing hundreds of fakes and spending public money for their rehabilitation did the injustice to thousands of victims who were killed, kidnapped and displaced by the NLFT and ATTF.
NLFT and ATTF were responsible for hundreds of brutal genocides, selective killings and kidnappings and all sorts of inhuman attacks on the Bengalis and also made crores of rupees from ransom money after abducting innocent people. But, now when they are facing problems they were brought back and being rehabilitated at the cost of public money.
It was also at the order of Biswamohan Debbarma that four RSS Pracharaks were kidnapped and killed in Bangladesh by NLFT militants. Ironically, he was now felicitated by no other Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself.
“Had they been active and had there been militancy in Tripura , the surrender could have been accepted in a sense. But they were given a lease of life for no reason at all. Perhaps only reason is to give impetus to a political party”, pointed out one observer.
It may be mentioned here that staging fake surrender or after surrender militant leaders becoming powerful politicians or some sort Corporation chairman was nothing new.
It started with ATPLO when Khagendra Jamatia and Binanda Jamatia surrendered before the Left Front government in mid-eighties and then became the politician. Khagendra Jamatia became Left Front minister while Binanda became GMP leader but was murdered. Later Bijoy Hrangkhawl with his 437 cadres surrendered but laid down only 64 arms on August 12, 1988. He became first a Corporation chairman and then MLA. All Tripura Tribal Force militants—as many as 1635- led by Lalit Debbarma surrendered before the Left Front government on September 6 1993 and they laid down three or four .303. Lalit Debbarma also became a corporation chairman. Later Ranjit Debbarma after being pushed back by Bangladesh government was shown arrested but after securing bail he joined Tipra Motha and became MLA.
Practically the NLFT became truncated and incapable of anything big when on May 6, 2004 as many as 72 militants ( including 22 females) –many of whom were also fake, came overground. They were led by topguns of NLFT like self styled vice president Kamini Debbarma, general secretary Mantu Koloy, Finance secretary Bishnuprasad Jamatia alias J Bosong, assistant finance secretary Dhanu Koloy, self styled army chief Binoy Debbarma deputy chief of army Sanjit Debbarma , lieutenant Kinoy Koloy, B Nagraj, D Koloy and Malaity Reang. During the surrender before Governor Dinesh Nandan Sahay they did lay down some arms like three SLR, one AK 47, six .303, one stengun, two revolvers, one carbine, five country made guns, one shell rocket, two country made pistols, one grenade , three wireless sets, two country made revolvers and 212 rounds of ammunitions. (Also published in Tripura Times)