ATTF chief remanded to 7 days police custody

Debbarma, who was arrested from Mohanpur area, about 20 km from here yesterday, was shifted to the Special Branch custody of the police.

The ATTF supremo had been remanded to a day's judicial custody by a second class judge yesterday as it was a holiday because of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary.

When he was produced before chief judicial magistrate Biswajit Palit here today, he was remanded to police custody.

On the way to the court Debbarma told reporters that his struggle for 'liberation of Tripura' would continue.

He claimed he had been arrested by security forces from Dhaka's Mohammadpur locality on December 30, pushed back through Dawki border in Meghalaya on January 16 and was handed over to Tripura State Rifles (TSR) two days later.

He said he launched a hunger strike in the custody of TSR on January 22 demanding his production in court following which they produced him before the court yesterday.

Official sources said Debbarma lived in Dhaka and set up bases in Sylhet and Chittagong Hill Tract. He conducted many subversive activities in Tripura from there and was responsible for many killings, kidnaps, and extortions.

According to intelligence sources, the insurgent leader had been in transport and garment business in Bangladesh and accumulated capital by collecting ransom from kidnapped persons and lived a lavish life.

However, the insurgency was on the wane in the state following pressure by anti-insurgency operation by the Seikh Hasina Government in Bangladesh and due to counter insurgency measures and erection of barbed wire fencing.

ATTF second in command Chitta Debbarma and many other leaders had surrendered.

Set up in early '90s, ATTF was fighting a war against the state demanding, among others, deportation of people who entered Tripura after October 15, 1949 (the day Tripura joined Indian Union).