Top leader revolts: NLFT suffers another split

AGARTALA, February 18: In a significant development, the outlawed militant organisation National Liberation Front of Twipra (NLFT) suffered a vertical split on ethnic lines again. Nayanbasi Jamatia, a top NLFT leader from the beginning, has deserted the outfit with 12 followers, all belonging to the Jamatia community, to surrender before the Assam Rifles. The desertion of one of the most dreaded guerrillas of the organisation has served a severe blow to the NLFT. The group may surrender formally to Assam Rifles next week. According to reports, Nayanbasi and his followers fled from the NLFT camp in CHT Bangladesh in the wake of sharp differences among the top hierarchy of the outfit. It is learnt that, the first differences of opinion cropped up when the Tripuri leadership of the NLFT attacked Reang organisation Bru National Liberation Front last year and killed many of the Bru cadres. Nayanbasi, a Jamatia himself, was sympathetic to Reang militants and felt that the attack on Reangs was a part of militant Tripuri leaders evil design for "Tripurisition" of 18 other tribal communities. In a fax message to local daily, Nayanbasi alleged that the NLFT leaders kept his wife and two other family members hostage in their Bangladesh camp. He said, family members of BNLF chief S Bru were also held captive in the hideout. The Rengade militant leader has sought Amnesty International's help for his family members' safe release. The split in the NLFT on ethnic lines - Jamatias being up in arms against Tripuris - is viewed with much importance. The socio-religious apex body of the Jamatias - Jamatia Hoda had been fighting reclentlessly against the NLFT for quite some time. Hoda has identified the NLFT, a Baptist Tripuri-dominated outfit, a threat to the distinct ethnic identity of the Jamatias. The Jamatia Hoda chief, called "Okra" Bikram Bahadur Jamatia, asked all militants belonging to the community to leave the NLFT and join the mainstream. The Hoda volunteers, in some cases, physically prevented NLFT militants to enter their villages.