GUWAHATI: A 45-year-old man was killed and 23 others, including security personnel, were injured in police firing, attacks and clashes in Tripura on Saturday when the police opened fire on the protesters who enforced a bandh opposing the decision of the state government and the Centre to rehabilitate displaced Brus (Reangs) in the state.
The incident was reported from Panisagar sub-division in North Tripura district. Official sources said as the situation was tense, a large number of security personnel had been rushed to Panisagar as well as Kanchanpur sub-division.
When the protests on Saturday turned ugly, the police initially used batons and fired tear gas shells to quell the protesters but they retaliated prompting the personnel to open fire in which a youth was killed and 23 others, including security personnel, were injured.
Tripura Police tweeted, “Even after facing brutal attack, police personnel showed utmost restraint and sensitivity in maintaining law & order and proportionate force was used in self-defence in Panisagar incident today (Saturday).” “The agitation was in Kanchanpur. They wanted to shift it to the national highway in Panisagar. There was some violence.
We are bringing in more forces. Hopefully, it will not escalate,” Panisagar sub-divisional magistrate Lalnunnemi Darlong told this newspaper. There was simmering tension at Kanchanpur ever since the JMC — a group comprising Bengalis and Mizos, had enforced an indefinite bandh on Monday. Later, the tension escalated to Panisagar and other adjoining areas of Kanchanpur.
Recently, the JMC had petitioned the state’s BJP-led government opposing the proposed settlement of 4,900 Bru families or around 34,000 people in Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions. They feared the settlement of such a large number of people in their areas would cause social imbalance. The authorities had clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC but over 10,000 locals have been staging the protests outside government offices and markets in Kanchanpur since Monday.