7 TSR, police personnel injured; IPFT strike hits Gandacherra

Seven Tripura State Rifles and police personnel were injured by supporters of IPFT, whose two-day shut down began today hitting normal life in Gandacherra subdivision.
The Tripura State Rifles and police personnel were injured by about 35 supporters of tribal Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) at Kalajhari area of the subdivision last night barely hours before the shut down began, Gandacherra sub-divisional police officer Jawhar Debbarma told newsmen today.
The IPFT attacked with stones, sticks and catapults, he said adding district magistrate Vikash Singh, I G (Law and Order), K V Sreejesh and Superintendent of Police, Jaal Singh Meena are camping in the town and held a meeting with tribal outfit's activists for peace in the area.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 Cr PC was clamped in the area soon after the attack to maintain peace in the sub-division during the strike and there was no report of any violence from the area till late evening.
A drop-gate was set up at Kalajhari so that no untoward element could enter the area during the shut down, Debbarma said.
As a result of the shut down vehicles remained off the roads, shops and markets were closed as well as schools and educational institutions. Banks and financial institutions did not function and attendances in government offices were thin.
The two-day strike has been called by IPFT, championing a separate state movement, demanding compensation to four of its activists who were injured allegedly by ruling CPI-M workers on February 8 during a dawn-to-dusk bandh to oppose the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 by All Tripura Indigenous Regional Parties Forum in Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council area.

The Forum comprises three non-Left indigenous political parties - Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura and National Council of Tripura.