Silchar, Oct. 27: Mizoram and Tripura, the two adjoining states in the Northeast, have decided to chart out a joint strategy to tackle militants from indigenous communities who operate from the border areas of the two states.
The DIG of Tripura police, Gourav Tripathy, and his Mizo counterpart, C. Zoramuana, held a closed door meeting on October 24 at Kanchanpur, a subdivisional headquarters town on Tripura’s northern flank.
They devised counter-insurgency operations strategy in their adjacent states along the woodlands which are used as sanctuaries mainly by rebels belonging to the Bru community.
According to police sources in Aizawl, the rebels among the Brus inhabiting Mizoram occasionally use the forests of Mizoram and Tripura for training.
Sources said the two police officers also decided to exchange intelligence inputs on movement of rebels along their border forests before launching joint raids.
Mizoram and Tripura police have also arrived at a consensus on joint operations in the states’ border areas to combat the inter-state gang of carlifters, fake currency note racketeers and those involved in trafficking.
Sources said the Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF), Bru Liberation Army (BLA) and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) are known to operate from their hideouts to ambush security forces and run extortion rackets in each other’s state.
Mizoram shares a 109km border with Tripura.
A similar meeting between senior police officials in Mizoram and Assam is also on the cards, and sources said it might take place here in next month.
Police sources in Assam’s Hailakandi district — sharing a border with Mizoram — said Mizoram had been cooperating with Assam in chasing Reang tribal insurgents who operate in Hailakandi district but take shelter in adjoining Kolasib district in Mizoram.
Three years back, Dhananjoy Reang, the supremo of a Reang militant outfit in Hailakandi district, was arrested by Mizoram police from a hamlet in their state. Later he was handed over to Assam police.
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