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NEWS - ATTF militants kill couple f



Subject: NEWS - ATTF militants kill couple for defying poll boycott

Vol. 2 Issue 23-24    Oct. 22-Nov. 6, 1999
Oriental Times / NENA

ATTF militants kill couple for defying poll boycott

As the people defied the poll boycott call given by the All Tripura
Tiger Force (ATTF), in a series of post-poll offensive outlawed ATTF
militants
have killed a couple, kidnapped five persons and injured at least 30 so
far. 

The militants brutally killed an aged couple at Mandai in West Tripura
district. The couple was hacked to death. The armed insurgents stormed
into Baisakh Debbarma?s home and enquired whether he had cast vote. They
checked his finger and finding the ink mark, killed him. His wife
Sakunti was also killed. 

The double murder caused high tension and panic among the villagers. The
CPI(M) claimed that the septuagenarian couple supported the party?s
tribal wing, Tripura Upajati Ganamukti Parishad. 

In another incident at least 30 persons sustained injuries as the
heavily-armed insurgents went bersek at Warreng Bari, Moglam Bari,
Ampura and
other interior parts of Khowai subdivision. The rebels stormed the
tribal houses and checked the adults? fingers for ink mark. Whoever was
found to
have cast his or her vote was mercilessly beaten up. Even women were not
spared. The militants also stopped passenger buses and jeeps plying
in the area at gunpoint to pick up voters. They were beaten up by rifles
and assaulted in the middle of the road for defying the vote-boycott
call. 

At least 10 tribal villagers were admitted to Khowai hospital. Panic ran
high among the tribals and many of them along with student voters
thronged Khowai School laboratory for chemicals which would get rid of
their poll-ink marks. Other affordable means like blades or lemon juice
were also on high demand. 

Earlier militants attacked a polling station in the same area in which
two villagers died on the spot. TSR personnel retaliated heavily and
foiled the
extremist raid. Altogether 12 people died in the State in poll violence.

Meanwhile, ATTF militants in a preplanned attack, kidnapped five tribals
from Tekrijala area. Among the abducted were two students. The
students of the area staged a demonstration for release of their mates. 

The militants also burnt down a house at Durgadhan Para. It is suspected
that the insurgents might have been denied shelter by the house owner
Budhirai Debbarma during search operation following an encounter between
ultras and security forces.