Probe confirms mysterious flight over Tripura

The army and the Tripura government on Friday confirmed that an unauthorised foreign aircraft flew at low altitude for two consecutive days recently over West Tripura along the Indo-Bangla border.

Army and Tripura government officials said in Agartala that the Union home ministry, the army, the air force and the Intelligence Bureau had thoroughly investigated the incident. The three-day investigation, which concluded on Thursday, confirmed the aircraft flew over the extremist-dominated Mandai and Sidhai police station areas on April 19 night and the next morning . But its identify could not be established. The Disturbed Areas Act is in force in this area.

So far no untoward incident or any kind of air dropping has been reported following the appearance of the mysterious aircraft, the officials said.

They said that the aircraft did not carry any arms and was on a "dry run". But it might have flown over these trouble-torn areas to familiarise the pilot with the topography of the border area.

In the latest incident, unlike in Purulia where an AN-26 foreign aircraft took a detour to drop arms in South Bengal last year, the plane entered Indian airspace twice without permission. The aircraft was seen by the Assam Rifles jawans deployed in the area.

Worried that the aircraft was neither detected nor prevented from entering the state, the Tripura government has urged the Centre to intensify vigil along the Indo-Bangla border.

The officials expressed serious concern over the incident, and promised that air surveillance in all the border states would be intensified and modern equipment installed soon.

UNI