Agartala, Aug. 23: Tripura government has beefed up security along its boundary with Mizoram to protect the Reangs living in fear of attacks by the Mizoram Armed Police (MAP) and the Young Mizo Association (YMA).
The MAP personnel and YMA activists had warned Reangs living in the Jampui hills of Tripura?s Kanchanpur subdivision of fresh attacks if abducted engineer Charanjit Singh and labourer Zoramsanga were not released by August 25. The duo were abducted from Mizoram?s Mamit district on August 7 by suspected Bru Liberation Front of Mizoram (BLFM).
Police sources, however, said the duo has been taken to the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
The MAP and YMA also demanded unconditional release of two Mizo youths, Lalzuama and Zominthanga, being held in police custody in Dharmanagar subdivision on charges of riots against the Reangs, and threatened to drive away all Reangs from Mizoram if their demands were not met.
Sources said MAP personnel and YMA activists are intimidating Reang tribesmen settled in Kwartha and other villages in Mizoram. ?A fresh influx may start any time as the Reangs across the border feel unsafe,? one of them said.
Realising the gravity of the situation, North Tripura district magistrate Debatosh Dutta deputed the deputy inspector-general of North district and superintendent of police G.S. Rao to the Reang-dominated villages. Both the officers are camping there.
The Tripura government has deployed Assam Rifles and TSR personnel along the boundary to stop fresh incursions by the MAP and YMA and to prevent influx.
Trouble had started along the Tripura-Mizoram boundary with the abduction of Charanjit Singh and Zoramsanga.
Shortly after the abductions, MAP personnel and YMA cadres attacked Reangs living in Bambobari, Therma, Sailot and Vellian villages along the Tripura border. They laid a siege from August 8 to 17 and beat up 20 villagers in the name of searching for the abducted duo. They also allegedly killed headman Phulendra Reang and abducted two Reang youths who remain untraced.
Official sources from Kailasahar, headquarters of North district, said the state government will take up the issue with Mizoram at the highest level.
