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118 rebels flee Bangladesh camps, surrender in Tripura
More than 100 tribal separatists have surrendered before the authorities in Tripura after fleeing from their bases in adjoining Bangladesh.
More than 100 tribal separatists have surrendered before the authorities in Tripura after fleeing from their bases in adjoining Bangladesh, officials said in Agartala on Sunday.
"The Bangladesh-trained militants, numbering 118 and led by their leader Pabanjoy Reang, surrendered before senior police and paramilitary officers late Saturday night," police spokesman Nepal Das said.
The militants belong to the Borok National Council of Tripura (BNCT), a sister organisation of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).
They also deposited a large cache of arms and ammunition, including AK series rifles, three mortars and foreign made revolvers.
Militants belonging to various rebel groups in the northeast have set up about 100 camps and hideouts in different parts of Bangladesh, specially Sylhet district and Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in the mainly hilly region of Bangladesh bordering India's Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya states.
"We have managed to escape from our camps in CHT after Bangladesh launched anti-insurgency operations in different parts of that country," Reang told reporters.
With this, about 160 tribal guerrillas of NLFT and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), including some dreaded ultras carrying rewards of Rs.250,000 each and having Interpol arrest warrants, have fled from their Bangladeshi camps and surrendered to Indian security forces.
