CHAKMAS FORCE MILITANTS TO FREE HOSTAGES
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
Agartala, Nov. 19:
Two Chakma women were abducted yesterday by a group of heavily-armed National Liberation Front of Tripura militants from Tuichakma village under Gandacherra subdivision. The abduction was carried out to avenge the lynching of two comrades of the rebels. The women were, however, set free today following public pressure.
Chakma villagers raided the forest where the women were being held hostage by the NLFT militants and obtained their release.
Before leaving the village with the women yesterday, the militants had warned the residents, mostly Chakma tribals, that unless they gave up their resistance movement against the NLFT, more such raids would follow and the abducted women killed.
Giving details, police sources said the Chakma tribals of Tuichakma village had organised a community meeting on October 27 and unanimously resolved to resist NLFT rebels. They also issued a call to all Chakma militants, mostly collaborators of the NLFT, to give up arms and join the mainstream.
The militants were also threatened with dire consequences unless they complied with the directive of the Chakma community council.
On November 7, two known NLFT collaborators, Jyotirmay Chakma and Kripajay Chakma, entered Tuichakma village to extort money. When the villagers refused, they beat up some of the residents.
The enraged villagers pounced upon the militants, lynched them and handed over their bodies to Raisyabari police station. The villagers’ wrath found expression the next day when the slain Kripajay Chakma’s father described his son as an “enemy of the society and also of the family” while speaking at Gandacherra hospital morgue.
The slain Jyotirmay Chakma’s father did not even accept the body of his son.
Planning to avenge the killing of their comrades, a group of heavily-armed NLFT rebels yesterday stormed Tuichakma village during the day, when most of the men were out working.
They abducted at gunpoint two middle-aged Chakma women, Taranga Lata Chakma and Rongabonti Chakma and escaped into the forest.
The residents of the village, regardless of political affiliation, immediately held a meeting of the community council and resolved not to budge an inch from their chosen path of resistance against the NLFT rebels.
The meeting also set a deadline till the end of this month, asking all Chakma youth engaged in militant activities to return to the mainstream. They asserted that unless the rebels did so, people belonging to the tribal community all over the state would take necessary action.
Significantly, the meeting also resolved that the community council reserved the right to even pass death sentences on any Chakma youth following the path of militancy in defiance of the call.
The meeting lambasted the NLFT for carrying out “mafia-like activities to the detriment of tribal interests.”
Official sources here said that coming close on the heels of the anti-NLFT stand taken by the Jamatya and Uchoi tribals of West and South Tripura respectively, the Chakma community’s call for resistance would help people wake up to the situation and back the government’s counter-insurgency operations.
Speaking on the issue, veteran Chakma tribal leader Sroto Ranjan Khisa said, “This was only to be expected because like all other tribal and non-tribal people, the Chakmas are also badly affected by the depredations of the NLFT, which has no defined objective.”
Khisa rued that the NLFT was causing the greatest damage to the tribals themselves, adding, “A section of Chakma youth, mostly thugs, are working as collaborators of the NLFT in lieu of payment but they are not trusted enough to be enrolled in the main body of the organisation.”
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
Agartala, Nov. 19:
Two Chakma women were abducted yesterday by a group of heavily-armed National Liberation Front of Tripura militants from Tuichakma village under Gandacherra subdivision. The abduction was carried out to avenge the lynching of two comrades of the rebels. The women were, however, set free today following public pressure.
Chakma villagers raided the forest where the women were being held hostage by the NLFT militants and obtained their release.
Before leaving the village with the women yesterday, the militants had warned the residents, mostly Chakma tribals, that unless they gave up their resistance movement against the NLFT, more such raids would follow and the abducted women killed.
Giving details, police sources said the Chakma tribals of Tuichakma village had organised a community meeting on October 27 and unanimously resolved to resist NLFT rebels. They also issued a call to all Chakma militants, mostly collaborators of the NLFT, to give up arms and join the mainstream.
The militants were also threatened with dire consequences unless they complied with the directive of the Chakma community council.
On November 7, two known NLFT collaborators, Jyotirmay Chakma and Kripajay Chakma, entered Tuichakma village to extort money. When the villagers refused, they beat up some of the residents.
The enraged villagers pounced upon the militants, lynched them and handed over their bodies to Raisyabari police station. The villagers’ wrath found expression the next day when the slain Kripajay Chakma’s father described his son as an “enemy of the society and also of the family” while speaking at Gandacherra hospital morgue.
The slain Jyotirmay Chakma’s father did not even accept the body of his son.
Planning to avenge the killing of their comrades, a group of heavily-armed NLFT rebels yesterday stormed Tuichakma village during the day, when most of the men were out working.
They abducted at gunpoint two middle-aged Chakma women, Taranga Lata Chakma and Rongabonti Chakma and escaped into the forest.
The residents of the village, regardless of political affiliation, immediately held a meeting of the community council and resolved not to budge an inch from their chosen path of resistance against the NLFT rebels.
The meeting also set a deadline till the end of this month, asking all Chakma youth engaged in militant activities to return to the mainstream. They asserted that unless the rebels did so, people belonging to the tribal community all over the state would take necessary action.
Significantly, the meeting also resolved that the community council reserved the right to even pass death sentences on any Chakma youth following the path of militancy in defiance of the call.
The meeting lambasted the NLFT for carrying out “mafia-like activities to the detriment of tribal interests.”
Official sources here said that coming close on the heels of the anti-NLFT stand taken by the Jamatya and Uchoi tribals of West and South Tripura respectively, the Chakma community’s call for resistance would help people wake up to the situation and back the government’s counter-insurgency operations.
Speaking on the issue, veteran Chakma tribal leader Sroto Ranjan Khisa said, “This was only to be expected because like all other tribal and non-tribal people, the Chakmas are also badly affected by the depredations of the NLFT, which has no defined objective.”
Khisa rued that the NLFT was causing the greatest damage to the tribals themselves, adding, “A section of Chakma youth, mostly thugs, are working as collaborators of the NLFT in lieu of payment but they are not trusted enough to be enrolled in the main body of the organisation.”
posted by Ven. Pragya Jyoti at 2:48 PM
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