Tipra Motha founder Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma Friday said the peace accord between the Centre, the state government and Tripura-based insurgent outfits – National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) – was signed at the right time last year. Pradyot Kishore reasoned that in the absence of the peace accord, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) could have created more trouble in the region in the wake of the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government in Bangladesh on August 5 last year. Over 328 armed insurgents surrendered after the signing of the peace accord in New Delhi. Apart from government officials and representatives of the rebel groups, Pradyot Kishore was also present during the signing of the accord. On Friday, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha said the Centre has announced Rs 250 crore to aid the transition of surrendering rebels as per the Memorandum of Settlement (MOS) with the two rebel outfits. CM Saha further said that the peace accord has led to the socio-economic improvement of marginalised groups, boosted employment opportunities and increased tourist inflow in the state, among others. The Union government has signed several peace agreements with rebel groups in the Northeast in recent years. In 2020, it signed the Bodo Accord, followed by the Karbi Peace Accord in 2021, and the peace pact with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in 2023, among others. Although militancy in Tripura dates back to 1967, when a small outfit called Sengkrak took up arms, the height of insurgency came in the late 1980s, when a series of insurgent groups, including the NLFT and the ATTF, became active. While most of these militant groups have largely become defunct, a small faction of the NLFT is said to be active in Bangladesh.
