On the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s maiden visit to Tripura, the NLFT militants today gunned down two Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawans and shot at another at Champahaur in west Tripura. The ultras also decamped with one AK series rifle and a large cache of ammunition from the slain jawans. A senior Police official at the Police Headquarters here said the sixth battalion TSR jawans, led by senior officials, launched a special operation in the extremist-dominated areas in view of the PM’s visit. Other Central and state security forces were also carrying on their anti-insurgency operation in various parts of the state. The banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) militants attacked the jawans early in the morning when the security personnel were passing through a jungle area on foot. Both riflemen – Bijoy Das and Pradip Bardhan – were killed on the spot. Another jawan was seriously injured in the attack and shifted to the hospital. The guerrillas managed to escape when the other TSR personnel retaliated the attack from a hill top.
Additional security forces, led by Superintendent of Police R S Kamble, had rushed to the spot and launched a massive combing operation to nab the guerillas, responsible for the attack on the security forces. While condemning such cowardly and senseless acts of the anti-national elements, Tripura Governor Dinesh Nandan Sahaya had appealed to all sections to condemn such violence and urged the misguided insurgents to shun violence, come to mainstream, maintain peace and harmony in the state and facilitate its socio-economic development in its large interest. Today’s militant attack on the TSR was the second such attack during the past six months in the state. Earlier on April 25, the NLFT guerillas shot dead three TSR personnel and injured two others at Narengbari in west Tripura. Eds: Please pick up suitably from earlier series.