32 more killed in ethnic violence in Tripura
The army intensified its operations in curfew-bound Khowai in west Tripura district
where at least 32 people have been killed in a
fresh wave of ethnic violence during the past 36 hours.
Official sources said two alleged
terrorists were shot dead by security forces on Monday while they were trying
to set fire to houses in Khowai.
The army and the paramilitary Assam Rifles took control of the six
police station areas of west Tripura district on Sunday where
the Disturbed Areas Act has been invoked and 'shoot-at-sight' orders given.
State Chief Secretary V Tulsidas said the situation in the district was
"quite under control." An army contingent was
flown to the state on Monday to strengthen security.
At least 100 people, including nine
security personnel, have been killed in ethnic
violence in Tripura since December. The Khowai incidents
were the worst since the June 1980 communal riot, official sources said.
Twentyfive thousand homeless people from various
parts of west Tripura have taken shelter in 16
make-shift government relief camps.
Hundred people have been arrested from various places
in west Tripura district during the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, at the site of the massacre,
three-year-old Pradip does not understand the
sudden spurt of activity in his sleepy village, nor is he aware of
the destruction all around. The small boy only knows that he cannot
find his parents who, he thinks are playing hide-and-seek with him.
It will take him a while to realise that his father, mother and
his dear tumpi didi will never return having fallen
to the ethnic violence that claimed 32 lives.
The sobbing child
wanders around the smouldering debris, waiting for his family to
appear. As the villagers prepare to leave the Gauranga Tilla
relief camp -- where they had been accommodated after the ethnic violence--
for safer areas, the orphan
stops to ask them if they have seen his parents.
Pradip and his family were among the 60 households that had been
sheltered in the Gauranga Tilla relief camp which was raided and
destroyed by tribal terrorists on Sunday.
''We do not not want to go back to our homes.
What is the use now? What do we go back to?'' asks 30-
year-old Jhulan Paul who lost her parents in the carnage.
RELATED LINK: 17 killed in Tripura massacre
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