Agartala, Oct. 30: Kamala Debbarma braved many bullets in her jungle hideouts as an National Liberation Front of Tripura militant but succumbed to mosquito bites at a camp just when she was preparing for a new life after surrendering before the government with her husband.

Kamala 29, had joined the NLFT eight years ago with her lover Pradip Tripura, 33.

Their marriage was solemnised in an NLFT hideout at Chapling Cherra in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

They finally surrendered before the authorities in 2006.

“We had taken a great risk by deciding to surrender because in NLFT you can never return without permission from the higher authorities. So, we trekked through long hilly routes before reaching Kanchanpur where we surrendered,” said a grieving Pradip over phone from Lachi camp.

But the surrender itself did not solve their problems. They had to wait for one-and-a-half years before their professional training for rehabilitation began in January this year at Lachi under Shantir Bazar police station of South Tripura.

The couple reached Lachi in January and rented a house nearby.

“We used to undergo training as an electrician and a tailor in the camp,” said Pradip.

There was, however, no other problem except the hard work involved in training at the end of which the couple was visualising their first step towards starting a “normal” life.

“We were waiting to start our new life, but since this July, Kamala started getting fever, which at times ran high. So we consulted the doctor who used to visit the camp on a weekly basis. The doctor, however, said nothing and merely prescribed some strong tablets,” Pradip said.

Kamala’s condition worsened and gradually she became too weak to work.

On October 21, Kamala fell critically ill and Pradip took her to the Tuikurma primary health centre, where she was declared dead on arrival.

Following a post-mortem, the doctors in Belonia subdivisional hospital said Kamala had died of malaria.

The inmates of Lachi camp have decided to petition the chief minister for a probe into Kamala’s death.