Pre-poll violence hits Tripura too

As the scared and screaming villagers rushed out of their homes, the attackers opened fire, killing five. The outfit has given a call to boycott the simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the state, slated for February 16.

In the second attack last night, ATTF militants swooped on a cluster of three villages, Purba Gonki, Kolabagan and Kalathara, in the Khowai area of west district. Setting fire to the huts, they forced the villagers to come out and then fired from automatic weapons, killing seven, including two children, on the spot. Three days ago, ATTF menhad killed five others in another village in Khowai.

The third attack over the past 24 hours came this afternoon by another militant outfit, the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), whose guerrillas ambushed a convoy of the Tripura State Rifles and mowed down five at Ambasa in Dhalai district.

Panic-stricken villagers are reportedly fleeing their homes not only in the affected areas but also in other parts where the shadow of the militants’ gun looms large over the polls.

Brigadier B S Choudhury, DIG, Assam Rifles, however, said there was no ethnic tension, although all the victims were Bengali-speaking and the attackers tribals. Other reports contradict this and suggest there is apprehension of an ethnic fallout, as it happened on a massive scale in 1980 and 1985.

Insurgency and ethnic cleansing have long made elections in Tripura bloody affairs.

In one month before the polls in 1988, at least 120 people, mostly Bengali-speaking were killed by militants, leading to the entire state beingdeclared a disturbed area and the Army taking over. In 1993, the pre-poll blood bath forced the Election Commission to defer the elections.

Reacting to the killings since last night, Congress leader Samir Burman, chief minister at the time of the 1993 polls, snapped, “The Election Commission is acting in a partisan manner this time. There can be no free and fair poll here except under President’s rule.”

The ruling CPI(M) has blamed the Congress and its poll ally, the Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti for instigating the violence. The party is, however, worried that the killing of Bengalis on the eve of the polls will make the majority Bengali community angry with the Left Front government. It happened in 1988 when the Left lost Tripura after a decade in power. The year 1993 saw it return to the saddle.

Home Minister Samar Choudhury said the State Government had asked the Centre for six more Army battalions before the polls. There are eight battalions of the Army and the Assam Rifles at present. Nineteen ofthe 45 police station areas have been declared “disturbed” for over a year.