By IANS,
Agartala : Terrorist outfits in the northeast continue to have close linkages between themselves to carry out subversive activities, the union home ministry said Thursday.
In a notification here, it said the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and Meitei extremist outfits of Manipur have been maintaining a close association to undertake subversive and violent activities in northeast India.
The notification comes after recent sporadic abductions by separatist outfits in Tripura.
A police report said 74 people, mostly tribals, were kidnapped by NLFT and ATTF militants this year in Tripura, as against 114 and 121 people in 2010 and 2009 respectively.
“Though the four-decade-old insurgency in Tripura has been largely tamed, the Tripura government remains cautious and continues the ban on NLFT and ATTF,” a Tripura home department official told IANS.
He said the state government has been apprehending that both NLFT and ATTF might increase their violent activities in the state ahead of the 2013 assembly elections.
The Tripura government last month extended for another six months the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), a stringent law that gives sweeping powers to security forces deployed in disturbed areas to curb terrorism.
AFSPA has been enforced in Tripura in 1997 in 34 police station areas fully and in six police station areas partially.
According to official records, over 8,075 tribal guerrillas of the ATTF, NLFT and other separatist outfits, including many carrying rewards of Rs.250,000 and with Interpol warrants against them, have fled from Bangladeshi camps and surrendered before the Tripura government since 1993.