Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has come out in praise of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) for unearthing the huge consignment of weapons at Satchharhi of Habiganj.
“This is most helpful. The RAB has done a great job in busting the concealed cache. We are very grateful to the Bangladesh government,” Sarkar, who is one of India’s longest serving chief minister and the only one from a Left party, said.
Sarkar said his state police intelligence and India’s central intelligence has known for the last 20 years that Satchharhi was used as the headquarters of the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF).
“Not only police and intelligence, we know this from dozens of people who were kidnapped and taken there (Satchharhi) and had the good fortune to return in one piece,” Sarkar said.
After the ATTF weakened and lost out in the turf battle, the Satchharhi base was taken over by its rival, National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) towards the end of the last decade.
“Once the Bangladesh can establish the date when these weapons were brought in and stored in Satchharhi, we can have some idea about who brought them in because we know when ATTF ran this base and when the NLFT took over,” said Manik Sarkar.
The chief minister was insistent that there was an ‘ISI hand’ in the whole plot.
“These weapons are used for full scale war. Anti-tank weapons, rocket launchers, mortars — these are not ordinarily used by insurgents. I am sure there is an ISI plan to intensify the insurgencies in Northeast,” Sarkar told bdnews24.com.
He said his state police intelligence has reports that the ATTF was close to the ULFA while the NLFT was close to the NSCN-IM, the Naga rebel group now negotiating with Delhi but periodically in news for arms smuggling.
“The bigger groups may be using the bases of smaller groups strategically located to bring in weapons.”
“We also know these groups have close links with fundamentalists who seek to destabilise Bangladesh and who are backed by the ISI. The ISI wants to destabilise the whole border region of Bangladesh and Northeast India,” Manik Sarkar said.
“We are grateful to Bangladesh agencies who have continuously cracked down and tracked down these elements. We are grateful to its present government for zero tolerance to terrorism. There should be no let-up in the fight against terror,” Sarkar said.
Source: Bd news24
