Agartala, Feb. 22: A week after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) roped in the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) as coalition partner in the Northeast, New Delhi is toying with the idea of persuading one faction of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) to lay down arms.
The Centre was optimistic that INPT president and former insurgent leader Bijay Kumar Hrangkhawal would be able to convince the NLFT (Biswamohan group) to start a dialogue and surrender en masse.
The INPT team that signed the coalition deal has assured the BJP leadership that the tribal party would make all efforts to pave the way for peace talks with the NLFT militants.
Hrangkhawal, whose induction into the NDA came under attack from the BJP?s state unit president Ranajay Deb, has been camping in Aizwal for more than a week to hammer out a strategy with Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga for bringing the Tripura outfits to the negotiation table.
Sources said a team of NLFT leaders led by Kamini Debbarma has also reached the Mizoram capital to monitor the talks between Hrangkhawal and Zoramthanga, peacemaker between Delhi and the NSCN (I-M).
The INPT leaders have been under pressure from the NLFT to chalk out suitable means for peace talks between the Centre and the militant organisation. The party is now seeking Zoramthanga?s help to arrange the talks.
The sources said the dissident NLFT commander Nayanbasi Jamatya has also been sending feelers to surrender to the state government.
In the first week of this month, Nayanbasi reportedly wrote to top police officials in North Tripura from the outfit?s Trailongbari base in Sylhet district of Bangladesh, expressing his desire to lay down arms.
However, the militant leader did not turn up when deputy inspector-general of police (range) Madan Mohan went to receive him at the pre-arranged place in Jogray village in Kamalpur subdivision. Sources said efforts were on to establish contact with Nayanbasi and finalise the modalities of a peace deal.
The NLFT leader, under pressure from his erstwhile mentors in Bangladesh and facing dissension in the outfit?s rank and file, has been longing to resume normal life and ensure his security, they added.