NLFT President Jacob Hrangkhawl nabbed in Aizawl, Mizoram

Jacob Hrangkhawl, president of the proscribed militant group (National Liberation Front of Tripura) NLFT, was nabbed by Assam Rifles personnel in Mizoram capital Aizawl on Wednesday, July 6.

55-year-old Hrangkhawl, a resident of Gongariaa Teliamura in Tripura, was nabbed at Vaivakawn area of Aizawl. It was earlier reported that Hrangkhawl was operating in Myanmar. Most of the militant outfit’s members are suspected to be operating from across the Indo-Bangladesh border.

The Aizawl battalion of the Rifles and local police jointly conducted a house raid at Vaivakawn during which they managed to apprehend Hrangkhawl.

A couple of mobile phones, two diaries, and two ball-point pens were seized from the apprehended individual, an official informed.

The National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) was formed on March 12, 1989, with Dhananjoy Reang (former Vice-President of the Tripura National Volunteers) as its ‘chairman’. Reang after being ‘expelled’ from the NLFT in 1993 formed a separate outfit, the Tripura Resurrection Army (TRA), but surrendered in the year 1997.

The militant group was banned in 1997 under the Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act.
The purported objective of the NLFT is to establish an ‘independent’ Tripura through an armed struggle following the liberation from ‘Indian neo- colonialism and imperialism’ and furtherance of a ‘distinct and independent identity’.

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the NLFT has links with the Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI), Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, and its counterpart in Bangladesh, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI).

NLFT has also developed trans-border linkages in Myanmar and Bhutan. According to Tripura police, the NLFT has also linkages with the Nagaland-based National Socialist Council of Nagaland- Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM), and the Manipur-based Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL).