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Top CPI-M leader shot dead in Tripura

Guerrillas of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura gunned down a senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) last night while a mob lynched two tribal youths suspecting them to be extremists.

Police said armed NLFT rebels shot dead Santi Kumar Tripura, a senior tribal politician of the ruling party, at Chawmanu in Dhalai district late last night.

Tripura was also a leader of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions and the Gana Mukti Parishad, a tribal organisation affiliated to the CPI-M.

Security forces rushed to the spot and began a search. Thirteen persons were detained.

The CPI-M has called for a twelve-hour bandh (shutdown) tomorrow in the entire Longtharai Valley sub-division to protest against the murder.

In another incident, a group of agitated people hacked two tribal youths to death at Jolaibari in South Tripura district last night.

The mob thought the youths were militants because they tried to flee the market on seeing Tripura State Rifles jawans.

In retaliation, tribal people attacked a village dominated by non-tribals and beat up several people. Some of the victims sustained severe injuries, police said.

Tension ran high after the two incidents in Jolaibari and adjoining areas. The district magistrate and superintendent of police rushed to the spot with reinforcements.

UNI

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