Journalist killings rocked Tripura in 2017

Team Udayavani, Jan 5, 2018, 12:08 PM IST

Agartala: Killing of two journalists within two months rocked Tripura in 2017 that also witnessed a number of political developments ahead of elections scheduled this year. Shantanu Bhowmick (28), a journalist of local TV channel-Din rat, was stabbed and beaten to death when he went to Mandai in West Tripura district on September 20.

Police said Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) and CPI-M’s tribal wing Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti Parishad (TRUGP) gathered at Mandai where prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) were promulgated to maintain peace.

Sudip Datta Bhaumick (50), a crime reporter with Bengali daily Syandan Patrika and TV channel Vamguard, was killed inside the headquarters of the 2nd battalion of TSR at RK Nagar on November 21. The killings drew widespread condemnation including from the UNESCO.

On the political front, the BJP’s bid to emerge as a force in the state got a boost with the joining of seven MLAs. Six of them were from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and one from the Congress. According to Chairman of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma, nobody can stop the BJP from forming the government in Tripura.

“People have become euphoric of forming BJP government. I am sensing that our party would sweep the elections in the state and would be difficult for the CPI-M to even win 10 seats in the 60-member House,” he claimed.

The Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), an anti- left ultra tribal party, had long been campaigning for a separate state by carving out the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), which constitute two third of the state territory and is the home to the tribals, who form one third of the state s 37 lakh population.

All the major political parties in the state including those in the ruling Left Front, Opposition BJP, Congress and another anti-left tribal party Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) have rejected the demand as divisive and impracticable. However, the demand for more autonomy of the tribal council has come to the fore to empower it.

The IPFT also suffered a split when the dissident faction led by Budhu Debbarma formed a separate committee and declared on April 16 that they are the real IPFT. The issue of more autonomy to the tribals and empowering the TTAADC became an import issue in the state ahead of the assembly elections.

Not a single insurgency-related incident was reported in 2017. Tripura is now free from insurgency, which devastated the state for the last three decades. During the year gone by, India decided to throw open its border roads to help Bangladesh construct border outposts in Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT), known for its inhospitable terrain.

Some areas in Chittagong, bordering Tripura and Mizoram, have no motorable roads and India decided to allow the Bangladesh border guards to construct 13 border outposts using the road connectivity available in the two states.

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar inaugurated Indo-Bangla Friendship Park at Chottakhola in South Tripura district, around 130 km from here on December 16. The foundation stone for the 20.20 hectare park, which encompasses seven hillocks and a lake near the Trishna wild life sanctuary, was laid by the then Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni in November, 2010.

Two statues of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Indira Gandhi, were put up in the park which was earlier a base for Bangladeshi freedom fighters from where they launched operations against the Pakistani army in Noakhali, Feni and parts of Comilla district of Bangladesh.