Christian Terrorists Massacre Eight Hindu Civilians in India

Posted September 27, 2005
September 25, 2005
Brindabanghat village, Tripura state, India
Sources: BBC, Rediff, The Telegraph, Newindpress.com

A hysterical Sabita Debnath, a 14 year-old girl, slams her head repeatedly against the wall of her mud-built house and cries she does not live any more.

Sabita has been made an orphan in a matter of minutes as Christian terrorists of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) gunned down and wiped all other members of her Hindu family in a matter of minutes and her sob reverberates across this sleepy village of West Tripura district.

“I do not want to live any more because my entire family was wiped out today. There is nobody to look after me", she scarcely puts in her words together to a team of visiting journalists. This picturesque Hindu village in West Tripura district turned into a killing field as the Christian insurgents trained their guns on the hapless Hindu inhabitants in the wee hours on Sunday.

“The terrorists entered our house at around 2 AM by breaking open the wooden door with sophisticated arms and gunned down my father before my eyes,” she sobs inconsolably. “I hid myself under a cot. My two younger brothers - Aurobindo (4) and Amar Chan (8) who woke up at the sound of firing were the next causalities. The attackers then turned to my mother (Niva) and shot her dead too.

“I saw my family wiped off in just about five minutes. Probably they missed me because I was hiding under the cot,” she says. Altogether, eight Hindus, including four women and two children, were killed in the attack. The ultras did not spare even 102-year-old Premanandamoyee.

The eight Hindu civilians who were killed in the attack were Amulya Debnath, Amar Chan Debnath (8), Aurobindo Debnath (4), Nirodh Debnath, Fulkumari Debnath, Niva Debnath, Chapala Debnath and Premanandamoyee Debnath (102).

Police say the terrorists dragged several Hindu men from their homes before shooting them.

In another dangerous development, two of the state most feared Christian terrorist organizations, the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) have joined hands and have agreed to conduct 'joint operations' against Hindu civilians and the Indian government.

Till 2003, the two outfits were sworn enemies and often fought pitched battles to extend or preserve their hegemony in the hilly areas of the state. But a series of surrenders and desertions by a large number of lay cadre as well as top commanders have led to major depletion in the ranks of both groups.

After a secret meeting, the leaders of the two violent groups, including Ranjit Debbarma of the ATTF and Biswamohan Debbarma of the NLFT, reached an understanding last month over joint operations.

Sources in the Special Branch (intelligence wing), of the Tripura state police, said the terrorists’ failure to strike hard on Indian security forces and Hindu civilians on August 15, when they had called a boycott of the Indian Independence Day, induced a rethink on the part of the leaders of the groups.

Sources said in order to make their presence felt, the ATTF and the NLFT have also reached an understanding with another terror group, the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO). “In Tripura, the ATTF and the NLFT are preparing to launch joint operations with the KLO in the run-up to October 15 which they propose to observe as a ‘black day’. However, the nature and implication of their understanding with the KLO is still not clear,” sources said.

The armed cadre of the Christian outfits, who have already infiltrated some of the interior areas of the state after crossing over from Bangladesh, have launched their decades-old terror campaign against Hindus in Tripura, both tribals and plainspeople.