At least one person was killed in Tripura when the police fired on protesters against the rehabilitation of the Bru tribes.
Guwahati:
At least one person was killed and several others injured, five seriously, in northern Tripura when police opened fire after a protest allegedly turned violent on Saturday. Reinforcements have been dispatched to affected parts of the state.
According to police, action was taken after rioters reportedly started throwing stones and blocked National Highway 8 in the city of Panisagar, 4 hours north of the state capital, Agartala.
Police sources confirmed to NDTV that 45-year-old Srikanta Das was shot dead and five others seriously injured when police personnel fired at a group of people protesting in support of an indefinite bandh, or lockdown, against the rehabilitation of the Bru refugees. According to sources, the protesters are said to have also attacked police personnel.
Local sources added that a fire department staff member was also killed in the police shooting, but police have yet to confirm this.
In view of the violence, a large contingent of security forces, including soldiers from the Tripura state rifles, have mobilized in Panisagar and neighboring Kanchanpur areas that remain tense, police added.
The closure, which runs counter to the central government’s decision to rehabilitate some 35,000 Bru tribal refugees from Mizoram back to Tripura, has been in effect since November 16. It has stoked the tension and paralyzed normal life.
Since Monday, between 12,000 and 15,000 protesters, including students, women and children, have defied prohibition orders by organizing rallies and demonstrations in front of government offices and markets.
The law and order situation deteriorated Tuesday after a group of tribal refugees attacked 26 non-tribal homes and a fuel pump Tuesday night, forcing 110 people to flee to safer locations, he said. police.
Twenty-three years ago, in October 1997, thousands of members of the Bru tribe fled to neighboring Mizoram after an ethnic conflict in Tripura. Their relocation from refugee camps, a pet project of Interior Minister Amit Shah, was seen as a great success by the Narendra Modi government in the country’s northeastern states, but locals strongly oppose it.
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