Traffic was paralysed along the only national highway that connects Tripura with the rest of India following a daylong blockade by the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) on Wednesday, pushing its demand for a separate homeland for the State’s minority tribal population.
IPTF supporters also blocked railway tracks, preventing movement of goods trains between Agartala and Silchar. However, no major untoward incident was reported.
A huge contingent of police was deployed to maintain law and order as hundreds of IPFT supporters, led by party president Narendra Chandra Debbarma, squatted on the NH 44 at several locations.
Terming the demonstration provocative and an attempt to create “ethnic divide in the peaceful State”, the CPI(M) and its main tribal constituent Gana Mukti Parishad (GMP) had earlier taken out a weeklong State-wide campaign against the demonstrations by the IPFT, demanding a separate state called ‘Twipraland’. However CPI(M) and GMP cadres stayed away from countering the agitation on Wednesday.
The IPFT, meanwhile, said the ruling party’s attempts to thwart its protests were “unsuccessful.”
“We have received a huge response from our people to make the campaign successful”, Mr. Debbarma told The Hindu over phone from Boromura hills where he was staging the protest. He said the tribal outfit would “continue” its agitation till the demand for a separate State was met.
The Tripura State Rifles (TSR) and the CRPF too were deployed in view of the tense situation.
Senior IPFT leader and former MLA Rajeswar Debbarma claimed that 20,000 IPFT supporters took part in the campaign. He said the agitation would “continue even at night.”
The IPFT has demanded a separate State for its 33 per cent tribal population in regions under the Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. The council, constituted under provisions of the sixth schedule of the Constitution, was formed with three-fourth of the State’s geographical areas and one-third population, which mostly comprises tribals.
