Tripura Police detains 13 members of Bangladeshi outfit

Tripura Police detained 13 members of a Bangladesh-based organisation.

A police official said that they were arrested after raids by the police from a rented house at Biswas Para under Amtali Police station in west Tripura late on Tuesday night.

Senior police officials said that 13 cadres, suspected to be members of the Chakma community organisation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeast Bangladesh.


“After interrogation, the Police have handed them over to the MTF (Mobile Task Force), and the MTF handed them over to BSF. All the 13 members would be pushed back soon to Bangladesh jointly by BSF and MTF,” said an official.

Sources said that these 13 members were injured in the armed clashes with their rival group at Panchari in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh last week. With their injury, they crossed over to India for medical treatment, and on Tuesday night, the Tripura Police detained them from a rented private house.

The group reportedly crossed the India-Bangladesh international border illegally through Raishyabari in Dhalai district following a violent encounter on the other side of the border. Most of them have bandages on their legs and hands.

The armed struggle of ‘Shanti Bahini’ in the CHT ended through the signing of a bipartite agreement between Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) and the Bangladesh government on December 2, 1997.

The ‘Shanti Bahini’ had been demanding a sovereign CHT for the indigenous tribals comprising Chakma, Mog and other communities living in the hilly region.

According to reports, there have been attacks on the indigenous people in the CHT by the Bangladesh Army and illegal settlers after the fall of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on August 5, 2024.