Agartala, Dec 4 (TIWN): During the last one year the militancy related incidents have shown a sharp decline due to the aggressive policing under legal framework and the number of kidnapping and extremist killings have been reduced substantially. A significant improvement in the insurgency situation of the State is being observed during the year 2005 till October 2014.

 A latest statistic released by Tripura Police Department shows that no civilian was killed in Tripura since 2012 by the extremists while in the year 2005 altogether 30 civilians were killed in militant attack. In total 5 persons were abduct by the insurgents in the present year till October 2014. Out of them, a single person was released while four other persons are still remained untraced. Altogether 115 extremist related incidents were recorded in the year 2005 but significantly the number of militancy incident is being reduced to 5 till October, 2014.

According to the latest reports provided by Tripura Police Department, The Chittagong Hill-Tracts (CHT) is the haven and training grounds for militants of the North-Eastern region including Tripura.  The state has been facing the scourge of militancy for more than two decades. Presently two militant groups- NLFT and ATTF are operating in the state. They are equipped with sophisticated weapons and have the expertise and training in explosive handling largely due to their link with ISI.

The report also indicates that militant groups of Tripura continue to operate from the soil of Bangladesh with the active support from the anti-Indian forces backed by the ISI. The two insurgency groups of Tripura- NLFT and ATTF outfits were declared as banned organizations by the Union Government. There are numerous training and arms supply infrastructure of Tripura militants in Bangladesh mostly in Srimongal and Moulavibazar Districts. The insurgents have been using Tripura­Mizoram­Bangladesh tri­junction as corridor for long time.

More than 1633 militants from different groups surrendered before the state government since 2005. But others did not surrender, rather continued with terrorist activities. But large number NLFT/ATTF leaders, followers including founding members have returned to mainstream of life in different phases. 

Recently, the Inspector General (IG) of Border Security Force (BSF) Tripura frontier- B.N. Sharma in a press meet revealed that, at least 32 militant camps are still camping in Bangladesh.

To deal with the problems of insurgency which includes providing security to developmental measures as well as conducting security operations, Tripura Police Department had adopted a multi pronged strategy. As a part of security measures, 28 police station areas in full and 6 Police Station areas in part have been declared as disturbed under Armed Force (Special Powers) Act.

In addition to Tripura State Rifles and the local Police, some Battalions of CRPF & Assam Rifles have been deployed for counter insurgency operations. With a well coordinated approach, the security forces have been able to contain the problems to a large extent. The security forces- Tripura Police, TSR, CRPF, Assam Rifles met with a fair amount of successes in the recent past.

It is to be mentioned here; NLFT self­styled foreign secretary Utpal Debbarma was released on bail on November 06 last at Agartala. Debbarma was arrested from Aizawl way back in 2011 by jawans of the Assam Rifles and SIB sleuths. He was charged with sedition and illegal possession of arms. The release of top­ranking rebel leader has set an alarm bell among the security agencies including Assam Rifles and Subsidiary Intelligence Branch (SIB).