Month-long efforts of interlocutors achieved to persuade outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) to agree to peace talks. The last active underground group of the state would attend tripartite meeting with representatives of Tripura and Union Government, in Shillong on Saturday.
Highly placed sources in security agencies confirmed the date and venue fixed in consultation with the NLFT led by Biswamohan Debbarma. They said the Meghalaya government has accepted request to provide necessary assistance.
“This would be first round meeting followed by one or two more. Nevertheless, NLFT will soon lay down arms”, a top security official told
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He said the breakthrough came in month long parlays between central government appointed team of interlocutors that included a few intelligence officials and NLFT leaders in secret locations in Dhalai district bordering Bangladesh.
NLFT, which was formed in 1989 with a pledge to fight for a separate tribal homeland, became crippled after three of its factions surrendered under separate arrangements with the central government since year 2000. It’s banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967, and police had framed sedition and serious criminal charges against its top leaders and many cadres for unleashing bloody campaign against troops and non-tribal population.
NLFT had in last year sent a letter to the union government expressing willingness to join peace process. The whole course of action commenced thereafter, officials said.
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They ruled out possibility of any major bounty to the NLFT except a beneficial rehabilitation package to leaders and cadres mainly based in camps at Khagrachari district of Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylet region of Bangladesh. The group is also under tremendous pressure in Bangladesh owing to frequent combing and search operations by security forces across the border.