Agartala, May 5: On the eve of the surrender by NLFT rebels, the state police and the militants are allegedly working together to include a number of former militants, who had surrendered earlier and had received rehabilitation benefits. Official sources said leading commander Kamini Debbarma, a former Kokborok (tribal language) teacher by profession, had first laid down arms along with Tripura National Volunteers (TNV) militants in September 1988 and got back his job and other rehabilitation benefits.
Commander Dhanu Koloi, a former pump-operator in the public health engineering department of the state government, had also surrendered in September 1988. But both of them, along with Mantu Koloi, Bishnu Prasad Jamatya, Benoy Debbarma had floated NLFT in April 1989.
Sources also said Mantu Koloi, a former employee of the state government, had been arrested by BSF with three colleagues of the rebel outfit in 1995 but the then home minister Samar Chowdhury released them on the assurance that they would surrender later with more members of the group.
Sources said many cadres listed for surrender tomorrow had earlier secured rehabilitation benefits like land allotment and bank loans and now the same benefits would have to be given to them again.
In a separate incident, fierce group clashes have broken out between rival factions of the NLFT in the thick woods of Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh bordering North Tripura and Mizoram, official sources said. The development comes at a time when the Tripura police are making elaborate arrangements for surrender of more than 60 National Liberation Front of Tripura rebels, led by six front-ranking commanders of the outfit’s faction.
The sources said many low-level cadres of the outfit had expressed the desire to surrender after the six front-ranking commanders, Mantu Koloi, Dhanu Koloi, Tapan Koloi, Benoy Debbarma, Kamini Debbarma and Bishnu Prasad Jamatya broke away in the first week of April with more than 60 followers.
On April 25, a group of 19 armed NLFT rebels — based in a hideout in Bandarban district in Chittagong Hill Tracts near the Myanmar border — headed for Tripura to surrender to security forces.
Following this, NLFT chief Biswamohan Debbarma sent another group in pursuit of the dissidents and both the groups fought with each other in a desolate place in Chittagong Hill Tracts.
In the first clash on April 30 morning, nine of the 19 dissidents died on the spot while the others fled in different directions. Casualty on the other side is yet to be ascertained, the sources said.