Tripura minister Rampada Jamatia attacked again; tear gas shells fired to disperse mob

When his motorcade was targeted on Thursday, the minister was with BJP vice-president Patal Kanya Jamatia.

The ruling BJP’s spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharjee said activists of the Tripura Autonomus District Council’s ruling TIPRA Motha were seen at the forefront of the attacks on Jamatia and other BJP leaders in different parts of the state.

“These attacks have been going on for a few days. There is a conspiracy to create unrest ahead of the bypolls. All Opposition parties are working hand in gloves with one another. They are trying to provoke the BJP with these attacks. TIPRA Motha is in the front but laal Matha (a reference to the communists) is behind them,” Bhattacharjee said.

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Senior TIPRA Motha leader Animesh Debbarma, however, said the protesters with black flags and “go back” slogans were common people and not Motha activists. “No one used our flags in these protests. Those women seen protesting against a BJP vice-president were seen uttering her name and asking her to return money collected from them in the name of a legal battle for the National Register of Citizens. How can anyone say Motha is responsible for it?” Animesh said.

Debbarma also said he felt the protests were not against the ruling party but a particular individual who happened to be a BJP leader. He also trained guns at the BJP and other political parties for allegedly spreading propaganda against Motha chief Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma. He termed their charges of spreading ethnic violence and crises as baseless.

Earlier, BJP Lok Sabha MP Rebati Tripura had said Kishore, a royal scion, was trying to incite ethnic riots between tribal and non-tribal communities and among different tribal sects in the border state.