Mizo govt accuses Tripura minister

The Mizoram government today accused Tripura Finance Minister Badal Choudhury of making false allegations against Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla and asked him to retract and to not further attack the chief minister "using unreliable statements."
Choudhury had accused Thanhawla of abetting NLFT, which was published in a prominent regional English newspaper, a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office here said.
"The allegations levelled against the Mizoram Chief Minister by Choudhury was factually incorrect and appeared to be motivated by other unknown considerations," it said.
Choudhury had reportedly told the Guwahati-based newspaper that the recent arms haul near Aizawl, comprising of 31 AK-47 rifles, one Singaporean-made LMG, one US-made Browning automatic rifle and several rounds of ammunition, indicated that the Thanhawla government was abetting NLFT and the seizure was made by personnel of 26 battalion of Assam Rifles.

The statement claimed that the arms seizure was made by officers of Tripura CID and the Assam Rifles personnel had, in fact, merely lent a hand.
Interrogations of the arrested militants belonging to Parbotya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti, a faction of Shanti Bahini of Bangladesh 'clearly' revealed that the arms were meant for the outfit and brought from Myanmar to be taken to the outfit's hideouts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
The arrested Chakma militants were interrogated by state police, IB, NIA and Tripura Police intelligence officers, it added.