CALCUTTA, May 7: All claims about containment of insurgency in Tripura fell to pieces when 19 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans and a home guard of the State police were killed in an ambush by underground militants near Khumlungbari village in South Tripura, 85 km from Agartala at 4.30 am today.

The incident, the biggest ever case of ambush in the insurgency-rocked State, has shaken the Army, paramilitary and State administration.

Director-General of Police Brij Pal Singh has rushed to the spot. The Army and CRPF has started combing the entire Natunbazar police station area which was declared ``disturbed'' late February under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. ``We had received a tip off from State police that some insurgents were hiding in the village. The raid did not yield anything and while we were returning grenades exploded all around us followed by firing from all four sides,'' recalled Sepoy Damodar Wakhere, who was among the five injured being treated at the Gobind Ballav Pant Hospital in the State capital.

Major Arbind Thakore, spokesman of Assam Rifles, said mortars and AK-47s were used in the attack. The CRPF jawans were overwhelmed by the surprise attack and had only light machine guns. There were no Army units deployed in this particular police station area.

Army and police sources say this was a typical National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) operation. The NLFT has been particularly active in the Amarpur sub-division area under which Khumlungbari falls. This insurgency outfit is particularly feared by the administration because it specialises in ambushes. On November 25 last year they killed five CISF jawans at Bagbari and on January 20 last year, 10 were killed and 10 injured at Hejamara.

In the entire north-east, an ambush of this magnitude has not been staged in over a year. Last August, 14 BSF men were killed in Nalbari district of Assam by a Bodo group. Army sources believe this could be the beginning of a fresh spurt in ambushes and there could be a connection between this incident and the unidentified aircraft spotted flying close to Agartala on the night of April 19-20.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.