Agartala, Jan. 15: Bowing to mounting pressure from India, Bangladesh closed down a militant camp earlier this month in Satcherri in Habiganj district but allowed the insurgents to flee.

Central intelligence agencies said Dhaka took the decision to dismantle a camp belonging to the All Tripura Tiger Force in the Satcherri area. The order reached the Bangladesh Rifles and Rapid Action Battalion units in Habiganj but the authorities sat on the order and tipped off the Tiger Force activists.

Sources said Tiger Force members, had on December 26, moved into the jungles in Kalenga tea estate under Sylhet district, opposite Kamalpur subdivisional town in Tripura?s Dhalai district.

Having made sure that the militants would not be affected by any operation, the combined force of BDR and RAB jawans raided the Satcherri camp on Janaury 12 and set it on fire. They also arrested Jogesh Debbarma and Surendra Debabrma, two senior Tiger Force militants, from areas close to the camp.

Sources said Bangladesh decided to dismantle the camp because a national highway under construction in that country would pass through areas close to Satcherri and a high-powered delegation would soon visit the area. Besides, the location of the camp along the border with India in Sadar (North) area of Tripura was too close for comfort.

The Satcherri camp, set up in 1988 by former Tiger Force leader Lalit Debbarma who surrendered in 1993, remained in place under its current leader, Ranjit Debbarma. Sources said the camp was the Tiger Force headquarters in the plainland of Bangladesh.