Agartala, Nov 9 (IANS) Six tribal separatists from the outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have surrendered to security forces after fleeing their camps in Bangladesh, police said here Monday.
“The Bangladesh-trained militants led by their self-styled captain Bhidhanjoy Reang, 28, surrendered before senior officers of the Tripura State Rifles (TSR) and Assam Rifles late Sunday,” a police spokesperson said.

The surrendered militants, aged 19 to 28, fled from their camps in Satchari in Sylhet district in northeastern Bangladesh.

They also deposited a large cache of arms and ammunition, including AK-series rifles and foreign made ammunition besides Bangladeshi currency.

They are being interrogated by senior police officials.

About 330 tribal guerrillas of the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) and NLFT, including some carrying rewards of Rs.250,000 and with Interpol arrest warrants against them, have fled from their Bangladeshi camps and surrendered to Indian security forces this year.

The ATTF and the NLFT have been demanding independence for indigenous tribals and the secession of Tripura from India.

Militants belonging to various rebel groups in the northeast region have set up about 100 camps and hideouts in different parts of Bangladesh, specially Sylhet district and Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) bordering India’s Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya states.

The Border Security Force (BSF) says it has intensified patrolling along the Bangladesh border following the detention of two top terrorists of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) last week.

“Patrolling along the 856-km India-Bangladesh border with Tripura has been intensified following the arrest of ULFA leaders Shashadhar Chowdhury and Chitraban Hazarika in the border areas of western Tripura. All the border outposts were alerted to prevent any unauthorised entry into Indian territory,” a BSF spokesperson said.

The two top leaders of the banned ULFA were detained by the BSF in the Tripura border last week and taken to Assam where they were sent to 10-day police custody by a local court in Guwahati Saturday.