Agartala, December 28
In one of the biggest militant strikes in recent years in Tripura, the outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) guerillas mowed down 17 people, including 16 Territorial Army jawans, and shot at two others at Dangabari in South Tripura District today.The militants also took away 16 sophisticated weapons from the slain jawans before leaving the area.
The police said here the Territorial Army Jawans were escorting the Border Road Organisation (BRO) labourers in two vehicles when the heavily armed NLFT rebels attacked them with automatic rifles from a hill top, killing 15 jawans, including the two drivers on the spot.
Three jawans were also seriously injured in the attack. One of them succumbed to his injuries. The incident took place at about 0800 hours this morning. The two vehicles in which the jawans were travelling were also badly damaged under the impact of a powerful grenade explosion by the rebels.
One tribal villager was also shot dead in the attack. The victim was passing by the area during the attack.
The BRO was constructing a big alternative highway to connect South Tripura and Dhalai district through the Amarpur subdivision. The BRO workers were working in the insurgency-dominated area under security cover.
The extremists took away one Light Machine Gun (LMG), 15 most sophisticated AK series rifles and a huge cache of ammunition of the slain jawans. The jawans had not been able to retaliate during the attack.
Top police and senior para-military officials along with huge contingent of additional security forces have rushed to the spot and a massive combing operation has been launched.
Today strike was one of the biggest rebel attack on the security forces in this North-Eastern state. The last major attack was conducted by the NLFT militants on the Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawans at Hirapur in West Tripura on August 20 in which 21 jawans were gunned down by the terrorists.
With today’s incident, over 46 security personnel, mostly para-military jawans, were killed by tribal guerillas this year while 36 security men were killed by militants last year. —UNI
