Agartala, Nov 10 (IANS) In the first major terror attack in Tripura this year, at least eight tribal villagers - among them four women - were killed and another woman was injured by insurgents, police said Tuesday.
Two more villagers were still missing following the midnight militant attack.

“Heavily armed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) militants raided the Pushparampara village in northern Tripura Monday midnight and abducted eleven villagers before gunning down eight of them in a nearby jungle,” said Deputy Inspector General of Police Nepal Das.

Police so far recovered eight bodies from the jungle while search was on for the remaining two people. The injured woman was taken to a government hospital.

“The victims were all family members of ten NLFT militants who had surrendered before security forces Monday,” Das said, adding that the extremists killed the tribal villagers to take revenge for the surrender.

“The Bangladesh-trained militants led by their self-styled leader Kiranjoy Reang, 30, surrendered before senior officers of the Tripura police,” he said.

With this, 16 NLFT militants have laid down their arms and ammunition before authorities in Tripura Sunday and Monday.

The guerrillas deposited a large cache of arms and ammunition as well as Bangladeshi currency. They are being interrogated by senior police officials.

The tribal dominated Pushparampara village, 150 km north of state capital Agartala, is just 500 m away from the India-Bangladesh border and is almost inaccessible.

“As the village is located near the Bangladesh border, we suspect the militants coming from across the border carried out the attack and then immediately again returned to the other side of the border,” a senior police official told IANS by phone from the spot.

Director General of Police Pranay Sahaya, accompanied by senior police officials, rushed to the spot and a massive operation was launched to nab the ultras.

The banned NLFT is fighting for an independent tribal homeland and operates out of Bangladesh.

The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has called a 24-hour strike in Kanchanpur area of north Tripura and demonstrations across the state Wednesday to protest the terror attack.

It accused the opposition Congress and its ally, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), of supporting the banned NLFT.