Banned outfit NLFT urgeS Tripura tribals to observe black day tomorrow

Agartala, Oct 14: The outlawed National Liberation Front of Twipra (NLFT) called upon all indigenous people of Tripura to observe October 15 as “Black Day” in protest against the government's rule to protect the identity and status of the tribals of the state. They announced to observe the day as black day because Tripura merged with Indian Union on October 15 in 1949. In a statement D. Khasmai, Information and Publicity Secretary in-charge of NLFT, said the communist leaders of Tripura like Biren Dutta from Comilla and a few others from Bengal and Cachar district of Assam conspired against ‘Maharaj’ Durjoy Kishore Debbarma, younger brother of Maharaja Bir Bikram Debbarma, and a minister of the royal administration for his stand against ‘illegal immigrants’. The only catch is that Durjoy Kishore was never a ‘Maharaja’ of Tripura; he was a member of the royal family who was banished from the Kingdom of Tipperah following a conspiracy against the royal heir. NLFT, however, chose to leave out the history of conspiracy against the royal heir and the then Regent Maharani Kanchanprabha Devi by the pro-Pak forces. NLFT piled heat against the Tripura Upajati Gana Mukti Parishad (GMP) – the tribal frontal organisation of CPI-M that rebelled against the king of Tripura and said that GMP was a test tube baby of communist leader Biren Dutta. They also accused Congress of acting against the Tripura kings as well. “Under the leadership of Sachindralal Singh, a team of Congress leaders comprising Umeshlal Singh, Sukhomoy Sengupta and Anil Chakraborty met Bengal PCC president S M Ghosh and took a forwarding letter to Sardar Patel on October 29, 1947”, the statement said. Durjoy Kishore Debbarma was removed from office after the then Governor of Assam Akbar Hydari visited Twipra under the instruction of Sardar Patel. The step finally paved the way for Indian intervention and the forces of occupation, the insurgent wing added. Identifying India as the foreign colonial ruler, NLFT claimed that India took over the royal administration on October 15, 1949, disbanded the royal army and imposed martial law till 1952 to suppress resistance movements. The outlawed insurgents called upon all sections of tribals to observe October 15 as Black Day to protest against the ‘Indian colonial rule’. The insurgents have also expressed concern at the degrading social values and norms of tribals. Meanwhile, both CPI-M and Congress smelled conspiracy of BJP behind rejuvenating NLFT by circulating statement to widen the hatred between tribal and non-tribal to polarise the vote bank. However, police said there has been sufficient arrangement to foil such attempt of Black Day celebration. UNI