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Tripura militants target children

Children have become easy prey for trigger-happy militants in the north-eastern state of Tripura.

Sanjib, an eighteen-month-old, became their latest victim when a group of gun-toting insurgents raided Communist Party of India (Marxist) politician Bimal Bhowmik's residence at Laxmichara village in Belonia last week.

Finding the politician missing, they pounced on his hapless wife Mamata and snatched her baby. The mother tried to save her son, but in vain -- the militants picked up Sanjib and disappeared into the jungles after shooting Mamata.

The injured mother is now struggling for life in the Udaipur district hospital of South Tripura. And Bhowmick is in hiding.

Sanjib's is not an isolated case. Of late a large number of children have been either killed or kidnapped by guerrillas belonging to the National Liberation Front of Tripura and the All Tripura Tiger Force. In many cases, the terrorists killed the minors despite getting the demanded ransom.

Recently, armed rebels abducted six-year-old Keya Dey Roy from South Tripura's Bagma. Fortunately, the girl was released when the parents paid up.

Nine-year-old Sarul Debbarma met his end because his father was a police informer. The incident took place at Kalyanpur in West Tripura, at the hands of the ATTF.

The ultras also kidnapped 12-year-old Debashish Chakraborty from Lefunga in West Tripura. They released him after 46 days.

A fifteen-year-old, Biswajit Dey was abducted last year from North Tripura. Though his father Biraja Mohan Dey, a local CPI-M leader, reportedly paid Rs 100,000, the rebels returned the child's lifeless body.

The rebels also murdered two poor boys recently at Fatikroy under Kailashahab in North Tripura. The police recovered their beheaded bodies from a jungle.

A look at official statistics shows that the banned outfits together have killed 194 people this year, including 23 security personnel, and injured scores of people. They abducted 391 people and, of them, gunned down 31. So far 230 people have returned from the ultras' custody; the remaining have been labelled 'missing'.

UNI

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