AGARTALA, June 5 ? In the largest-ever surrender ceremony in the recent past 71 militants belonging to prescribed NLFT (Biswamohan group) and Borok National Council of Tripura, a fringe outfit, laid down arms before the IG CRPF Sukhjinder Singh Thursday. Thirty militants out of total 71 were hardcore extremists belonging to NLFT. Others from the BNCT used to work as local collaborators of the NLFT under the banner of BNCT. As many as 74 militants had earlier come overground at the initiatives of the CRPF battalions deployed in the state during the last three months on separate occasions. But the formal surrender before the IG took place Thursday morning at the CRPF headquarters here before the media. Three extremists could not turn up for some reasons.
?The militants who laid down sophisticated weapons like AK-47 and carbines would be entitled for rehabilitation packages as announced by the MHA. Others who surrendered only country-made guns would not be entitled for government sponsored rehabilitation but we would try to provide them some means for livelihood,? IG Sukhjinder Singh said.
The IG also informed that the NLFT is consolidating its position with largescale recruitment and increasing salaries of its cadres. ?We have information that the NLFT recently recruited as many as 200 males and 50 women cadres. They have also hiked the monthly pay of the militants from Rs 1200 to Rs 1600 to contain the grudge among the extremist cadres of the lower rung,? he informed.