Tripura shutdown cripples life in Tripura tribal areas

A 12-hour shutdown, called by six tribal parties in the tribal areas of Tripura to protest police firing earlier this week injuring six youths agitating against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, crippled life on Saturday, police said.

"Except two minor incidents, the shutdown was peaceful in the entire TTAADC (Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council) areas. The bandh supporters attacked a passenger vehicle and a two-wheeler at Bishramganj areas in western Tripura," Police said.

Most of government and semi-government as well as private offices, educational institutions, shops and business establishments were closed due to the strike, the police said.

Banks and financial institutions were also closed in view of the shutdown, which was also opposed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Communist Party of India-(Marxist).

All vehicles, except those of security forces, went off the roads.

The six tribal based parties led by the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) demanded Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb's resignation, a judicial probe by a sitting High Court Judge, compensation of Rs 20 lakh or government jobs to the families of the injured youths.

In view of the Saturday's shutdown, security measures have been intensified and huge contingents of the Tripura State Rifles, Central Reserve Police Force, para-military Assam Rifles and Tripura Police have been deployed across TTAADC areas, covering over two-thirds of the state's 10,491 sq.km area, and home to over 12 lakh people, mostly tribals.

The CPI-M is now governing the TTAADC, an autonomous constitutional body formed in 1987 under Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to protect and safeguard the political, economic and cultural interests of the tribals, who consist of one-third of the Tripura's four million population.

--IANS

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