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High alert along Tripura border

	June 19, 2006

The Tripura government has put the entire 856- km border with Bangladesh on high alert to nab banned militants likely to enter the state

from hideouts in Bangladesh. The move comes following the killing of 10

suspected National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) militants by the paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in the Bagaicherri area of Sajek range

in Rangamati district in the Chittagong Hill Tracts on Monday (June 13).

An official source in the home department said the BSF has been asked to tighten vigil all along the border so that any militant trying to sneak in can be arrested. Suresh Chandra Dutta, Inspector-General, BSF, said his officers and jawans have been keeping a round-the-clock vigil along the border. “We are doing whatever is needed to make the border foolproof in terms of entry and exit,” Dutta said.

According to official agencies keeping tabs on the insurgency-related developments in Bangladesh, the killing of the 10 NLFT rebels has exposed the nexus

between the militants and drugs and arms peddlers

operating within Bangladesh.

On June 11, RAB officers and jawans had nabbed

two suspected NLFT rebels-cum-arms peddlers, Saleng

Marak and Shishir Marak, from residential areas in

Dhaka. During interrogation, the duo said 70 other

rebels of their group had been staying in a camp in the

Bagaicherri area since June 9.

A group of RAB officers and jawans led by Lt Col

Gulzaruddin Ahmed and Lt Col Hasinur Ahmed

raided the militant hideout in the Bagaicherri area,

taking the nabbed rebels as guides. When the RAB

officers and jawans got close to the site, the suspected

NLFT militants opened fire, killing Saleng and Shishir

on the spot. Eight bullet-riddled bodies, as well as arms

and ammunition were recovered from the camp.

The identity of the slain militants is yet to be

officially established as the Bangladesh government

has not confirmed the incident. The RAB media cell

made a statement on Monday, June 12, about two

drug peddlers arrested by them but did not say

anything about the slain militants.

A source said the Indian High Commission in

Dhaka has approached the Bangladesh government

to cross-check the identity of the militants as the

Bangladeshi media had said the rebels belonged to

the NLFT.

Last year, the RAB had killed six NLFT

militants in a hideout in Maulvi Bazar district of

Bangladesh.