By IANS,
Agartala : Eighteen Indian separatists, who had completed their three years jail term in Bangladesh two months back, were handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) in Tripura by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), an official said here Sunday.
“Eighteen ATTF (All Tripura Tiger Force) guerrillas, including nine dreaded rebels were handed over to BSF by BDR late Saturday,” said police spokesman Kishore Debbarma. The guerrillas were handed over at Khowai checkpost, 90 km north of here.
Debbarma said: “In October 2004, the ATTF militants went to Bangladesh and took arms training at their hideout at Satchari in Sylhet district before they were apprehended by BDR troopers in 2005.”
“BDR then handed over the militants to Chunarughat police station in Sylhet district before a Bangladeshi court sentenced them to three years jail term under the arms act,” the police official told IANS.
The tribal guerrillas, aged 25-28 years, led by Chitta Debbarma and Pradip Debbarma, completed their jail term in early July.
Police officials have gone to Khowai and were interrogating the guerrillas who had trained in Bangladesh.
“Indian insurgents taking shelter in Bangladesh have been handed over to India due to constant pressure by New Delhi,” the police spokesman added.
In July, in a similar gesture, Bangladesh handed over six Indian guerrillas, including three from the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), through the Meghalaya frontier.
In the BSF-BDR director general level and home secretary level meetings in Dhaka in August, India and Bangladesh had decided to hand over guerrillas and criminals hiding in the two respective countries to the other country.
BDR had handed over a list of 1,464 Bangladeshis hiding in India while BSF submitted a list of 263 wanted insurgents and criminals, including United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leaders Paresh Barua and Anup Chetia and leaders of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), said a BSF official requesting anonymity.