Agartala, Aug. 5: The banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT)’s Nayanbasi Jamatya faction has taken to dacoity to make up for the shortfall in its expected income through extortion and abductions.

In one such incident last night, a group of 50 militants and criminals from Bangladesh took away cash and valuables worth Rs 5 lakh from a house in the Charilam area of Bishalgarh subdivision.

Police said the dacoits raided businessman Manik Debnath’s residence around 11.30 pm, herded the women into a room and threatened to kill the children if they screamed for help. The group ransacked the five rooms of the house for about 45 minutes and walked away with the booty.

Debnath’s residence was full of relatives when the dacoity took place because his younger brother Asish had just got married. A family member said the 15 NLFT militants in the gang were wearing fatigues and carrying sophisticated firearms, including AK 47 rifles. The rest were clad in lungis and held countrymade weapons.

Throughout the Nineties, militant outfits active in the state collected crores of rupees by levying illegal taxes and abducting people for ransom.

However, lakhs of non-tribal people have since deserted their ancestral homes in the interiors of Tripura, leaving the militants with fewer targets for extortion. In some areas, the tribal community has stopped paying money to the militants in defiance.

Another factor is that the three major militant groups — the NLFT (Biswamohan), the NLFT (Nayanbasi) and the Tiger Force — cannot encroach upon one another’s territory.

Feeling the pinch, the Nayanbasi faction has started robbing people in the areas with mixed population and those where the presence of security personnel is minimal.

A police official in Bishalgarh said the Bangladeshi miscreants involved in last night’s heist would probably try to flee across the international border. He said all Border Security Force outposts had been alerted to this possibility.

Youth murdered

A youth was killed in the heart of Agartala town because of his alleged relationship with a girl from a relatively affluent family.

Police said Maran Das used to reside in the Radhanagar area of the state capital and did odd jobs for a living. He befriended a girl recently, much to the annoyance of her brother, Ravi Sarkar.

According to the FIR, Ravi and two of his friends, Suman Modak and Gautam Debnath, called Maran out of his house yesterday afternoon and stabbed him to death. The police arrested Gautam, but Ravi and Suman are absconding.

Body recovered: Police yesterday recovered the body of a former Tiger Force militant from Chargharia village in Sadar (East) subdivision.

The victim, Rajendra Debbarma, was presumably gunned down for deserting the outfit after siphoning out some money from its coffers.

Police sources said Tiger Force militants abducted Rajendra and another youth, Sushil Debbarma, from Kising Sardarpara village on July 16.

The bullet-riddled body of Sushil, who was a member of the outfit till March, was recovered from a nearby jungle the very next day.