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42 guerrillas arrested from Indo-Bangla border

The Bangladeshi army busted two hideouts of the National Liberation Front of Tripura and apprehended 42 rebels in the Chittagong hill tracts adjoining Tripura and Mizoram, official sources said Thursday.

Quoting a report from the border, they said the army and Bangladesh Rifles took part in the operation at Khagrachari, in the south-east part of the country.

Meanwhile, two more bodies of the militants killed in Wednesday's encounter with the Assam Rifles were recovered, raising the toll to nine. The jawans who took part in the operation would be rewarded, sources said.

In Guwahati, meanwhile, private vehicles were off the roads Thursday, following a strike called by the Indian National Trade Union Congress in South Tripura district. This was in protest against militants' attack on private vehicles.

The Assam Rifles and the police told newspersons that the militants killed in the encounter were coming from Bangladesh after completing arms training there. The Border Security Force has been alerted to maintain a strict vigil to prevent militants from crossing the Indo-Bangla border.

The sources said Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had repeatedly informed the centre that numerous militant camps were operating from Bangladesh's Chittagong hill tracts, Sylhet, Habibganj, Maulabi Bazar and Comilla.

Security forces, meanwhile, have arrested nine extremists and their collaborators from different parts of the state in the past 24 hours. Some firearms were also recovered.

In another incident, guerrillas kidnapped a tribal schoolteacher from South Tripura.

UNI

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