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 ormed on 12 March 1989, National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) aspires to establish an ‘independent’ Tripura by launching an armed struggle against the Indian State. The outfit was initially formed by disgruntled cadres of the Tripura National Volunteers (TNV) led by Dhananjoy Reang.
The outfit’s profile has undergone changes as a result of several splits. One of the major splits occurred in February 2001, following which two factions of the outfit were headed by Biswamohan Debbarma and Nayanbasi Jamatiya. The latter faction, however, surrendered en masse to the Tripura police. Following a failure in the negotiations, Nayanbashi alone left the camp and went back to Bangladesh to start afresh an armed struggle. His cadres, however, stayed back and benefits of the surrender scheme of the state government have been extended to them.
The top leadership of the NLFT faction headed by Biswamohan Debbarma is based in Bangladesh. Headquarters of the outfit is located at Sajak in the Khagrachari district of Bangladesh. The outfit also maintains several of its camps in that country. A poor caricature of its old days, NLFT carries out intermittent hit and run attacks in Tripura. Such activities, in recent times, have been reported only from the Dhalai and West Tripura districts.
The cadre strength of the outfit is believed to be not more than 200, about half of whom possess sophisticated arms and ammunition like the AK series rifles. The outfit still manages recruit its cadres among the tribal population in the state either through threats or enticements. Following training that ranges from few weeks to couple of months, these cadres are deployed for the outfit’s activities in Tripura.
NLFT, through out its existence, is known to have maintained linkages with several other insurgent groupings such as ULFA, NSCN-IM. In recent times, strategic linkages with the ATTF have also been reported.
The All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF)’s precursor the All Tripura Tribal Force was founded on 11 July 1990. Ranjit Debbarma led a group of disgruntled Tripura National Volunteers (TNV) cadres, who had dissociated themselves from the Lalit Debbarma-led faction. The Lalit Debbarma faction had signed an accord with New Delhi and surrendered. In 1992, the ATTF was renamed after substituting the word ‘Tribal’ with ‘Tiger’.
The purported objective of ATTF is to expel all Bengali-speaking immigrant settlers who entered Tripura after 1956, restore land to tribals under ‘Tripura Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act’, 1960 and remove names of migrants who entered Tripura after 1956 from the electoral roll.
Ranjit Debbarma is the President of ATTF. Other office bearers include Vice President Chitta Debbarma alias Bikash Koloi, Organisation Secretary Upendra Debbarma, Malinjoy Reang, Publicity Secretary. The outfit’s cadre strength has dwindled drastically over the years. Current strength of ATTF is estimated to be around 200. Past recruitment drives of the outfit have not been very successful in roping in young cadres. The outfit carries out hit and run attacks within Tripura and in recent times, its activities have been reported mostly within West and Dhalai districts.
Like the NLFT, the ATTF’s top leadership is based in Bangladesh. The outfit’s headquarters is located at Tarabon in Bangladesh. Besides the outfit maintains several camps/ safe houses in Bangladesh where it houses and train its cadres.
Outside Tripura, ATTF maintains linkages with the ULFA, Khaplang faction of the NSCN, the Manipur based PLA, UNLF and PREPAK. Inside Tripura, the ATTF either formed or was associated with several peripheral terrorist/criminal outfits such as the Tripura Tribal Youth Force (TTYF), the Tripura Liberation Organization (TLO), the Tripura Young Rifle (TYR), the Tripura Lion Force (TLF) and the Tripura National Army (TNA). Most of these groups, however, are no longer operative.
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