'Criminalisation of politics leading to ethnic violence, other crimes in Tripura'

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Tripura Assembly and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury on Friday said that "due to criminalisation of politics, ethnic violence to numerous crimes have been taking place during the last 6 years' rule of BJP-led government in the state".

A CPI-M legislature party delegation led by the LoP on Thursday visited Ganda Twisa, where large-scale arson, attacks and looting took place on July 12 after the death of a tribal college student, Parameshwar Reang, who succumbed to injuries after being assaulted on July 7.

According to officials, over 40 houses, 30 shops, and many vehicles were either burnt or severely damaged by the attackers in the mixed-populated Ganda Twisa area (in Dhalai district), located 130 km from Agartala.

Over 400 men, women and children belonging to 165 families are still sheltered in a special camp since the ethnic violence broke out.

Detailing the visit of the delegation to the violence-hit Ganda Twisa, the LoP demanded impartial investigation of the violence by constituting a Special Investigating Team (SIT) led by a senior-ranking police officer.

"After the unfortunate death of Parameshwar Reang, ill-motivated perpetrators involving some innocent people in a pre-planned manner undertook large-scale attacks, arson, and looting. The attackers did not even spare the hundreds of cattles," the Left leader told the media and demanded a visit by Chief Minister Manik Saha in the violence-hit Ganda Twisa.

The LoP claimed that the state administration did not take any steps to facilitate the return of the affected people to their villages and did not provide basic assistance to the hapless people sheltered in the relief camp.

He said that "due to criminalisation of politics by the ruling BJP and non-punishment to the accused persons, ethnic violence to varied crimes and misdeeds have been taking place since 2018 in Tripura".

"Without taking action against the criminals and attackers, the police are arresting the victims and that is unprecedented in the entire country. Lawlessness increased to a large extent due to the misgovernance of the BJP government. Taking advantage of the situation, criminals recently murdered the secretary of a prominent club in the outskirts of the city," Chaudhury said.

The Tripura Human Rights Commission (THRC) also expressed shock and dismay over the ethnic violence in Ganda Twisa and served notice to the Director General of Police and the District Magistrate of Dhalai district, officials said.

The three-member rights panel, headed by Swapan Chandra Das, retired Tripura High Court judge, said that inaction or negligence on the part of public servants in preventing the commission of a violation of human rights is also actionable and, therefore, the notices are issued to submit the preliminary report within three weeks for further course of action.

The Tripura government has recently sanctioned Rs 6 lakh in favour of Kharagaram Reang, father of Parameshwar Reang while Rs 1.54 crore has been sanctioned for providing financial assistance to 165 affected families.

Immediately after the violence, financial assistance of Rs 25,000 was given to each of the affected families as interim relief by the district administration, an official said.