Three Bangladesh-trained militants surrender in Tripura

Agartala, May 26 (IANS) Three Bangladesh-trained militants have surrendered to the Border Security Force (BSF) in Tripura and deposited foreign-made arms and ammunition, an official said here Monday.

"Three hardcore National Liberation Front of Tripura militants - Dalumani Jamatia, Krishna Jamatia, Hainalal Halam - laid down their arms before BSF officials in bordering Sidhai area in western Tripura Sunday evening," BSF's chief public relations officer Bhaskar Rawat told reporters.

The guerillas deposited two AK-series rifles, one Chinese pistol, seven magazines and around 200 cartridges.

According to officials, the BSF motivated the militants who took up arms training in Bangladesh and came back to India recently.

The union home ministry had earlier banned the NLFT and another extremist outfit, the All Tripura Tiger Force, in 1997.

Police and BSF say the two outfits have set up camps in Bangladesh and receive support from separatist groups of the region.

They have been seeking secession of Tripura from India.

Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, some of it unfenced and running through dense forests, making it porous and vulnerable.