NLFT's sustained attack on women increasing

AGARTALA, April 27? What makes the National Liberation Front of Tripura, the banned outfit, different from other militant organisations? Well, dubious it may sound, but fact is that it is the NLFT militant?s shameless, selective and sustained attack on women that turned the tribal outfit into a brute force. And most of the women raped, killed and kidnapped by the tribal insurgents of Tripura belong to their own community only. In a renewed violence from January 1 to till date, 38 persons were killed by the militants and most of them are directly or indirectly ruling party supporters. But what is significant is that as in the wake of sustained terror campaign in the rural areas the CPM leaders and workers are now staying away from their villages, the militants now find the women folk unguarded and out of desperation kill them at will. Only in the last five days four tribal women were shot dead by the militants in West and Dhalai district ? last being the victim of attack at Nepaltilla Thursday night. It is not that the NLFT did not attack women or children in the past. There were several occasions when women and children were kidnapped and killed. An unofficial figure put the figure of women killed till date at more than 200 during the last eight years, and that too the figure excludes the women killed in riot or largescale carnage that off and on rocked the State in late nineties.

During 1998-99 more than 50 students were either kidnapped or shot dead by the militants while women were raped either by the main group NLFT or by their fringe outfits. Some of the victimised women, mostly tribal, committed suicide. The NLFT militants once targeted an entire village dominated by minority nontribal community and gang-raped at least nine women at gun-point for days together. The Women Commission took up the matter and police shot dead a gang leader Haflong Jamatia when he attempted to escape from the police custody. Then a baby of one-and-half-years was also kidnapped from his mother?s lap at Baikhora in South Tripura for ransom. His mother was shot at from point blank-range. The baby was later rescued following the shoot-out between Tripura State Rifles and NLFT militants. However, during the last ADC elections, the NLFT made history when they kidnapped wife and relatives of CPM candidate to exert pressure on them to withdraw nominations on behalf of a particular political party. No need to mention, they succeeded. But the recent development sends an ominous signal. It is apparent that the NLFT militants are now all out to kill the wife, daughters and other relatives of the local leaders of Gana Mukti Parishad.