Nayanbasi Jamatiya, a dreaded militant leader who was involved in kidnappings and killings, surrendered to the Tripura police Friday night, police said here Saturday.
According to police, Jamatiya, a top leader of the banned militant group National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), sneaked into the Indian territory from Bangladesh through the Malda border in West Bengal four days back.
"He arrived at his residence at Teliamura in western Tripura by train Friday afternoon before surrendering without any arms and ammunition," a police official told reporters.
Jamatiya was wanted as he had formed NLFT around 2000 and was involved in number of militant activities, including kidnappings and killings.
The police had earlier declared a reward of Rs.1 lakh to anyone who could give information about the whereabouts of the 53-years-old guerrilla leader.
The official said: "We are in the dark how Nayanbasi fled from Bangladesh. He is also not keeping well."
"Senior Tripura and central intelligence officials are interrogating him," the police official added.
Jamatiya and a large number of cadres had surrendered to the Tripura government in 2006. But after a year, he returned to terrorism for not finding 'satisfactory' the terms of agreement with the state government.
"The militant leader went back to Bangladesh and started an armed militancy for a 'sovereign Tripura' afresh. However, his followers stayed behind due to which his new group has been long suffering from both cadre and monetary crisis," the police official added.
Earlier, in January this year, another top militant leader Ranjit Debbarma, chief of All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), was pushed back by the Bangladeshi security forces after he was arrested in Dhaka in December last year.
Debbarma was facing Interpol's red corner notice for a number of massacres and other crimes.
The Tripura government in February slapped charges under the National Security Act (NSA) against Debbarma, who had formed ATTF in 1993.
The union home ministry had banned both the NLFT and the ATTF April 3, 1997.
According to police and the Border Security Force officials, the two outlawed outfits - NLFT and ATTF - have set up bases in Bangladesh along with other extremist organisations of northeast India and receive support from separatist groups of the region.
They have been seeking secession of Tripura from India.
Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, some of it unfenced and running through dense forests, making it porous and vulnerable.
