Agartala: Two cadres of banned of proscribed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) surrendered before the Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday.

While speaking to the media, Inspector General (IG) Sushanta Kumar Nath said that a total of 31 NLFT cadres surrendered before BSF in the last four years.

He said that both the cadres- Khistish Debbarma and Swapan Debbarma, who joined the proscribed outfit in the year 2019 and 2020 respectively laid down arms before the BSF and returned to mainstream life. Both of them were members of NLFT's Biswa Mohan (BM) faction.

"Two more active cadres of NLFT (BM) have chosen the right path and returned to mainstream life. One of them is an active old cadre namely Khitish Debbarma alias Kwkhwi, a resident of the Khowai district. The other member is Swapan Debbarma alias Bathar of the same district," he said.

Khitish Debbarma, he said, joined NLFT (BM) outfit in the Year 2019 and underwent vigorous training in weapon handling and guerrilla tactics. Swapan Debbarm who is known by his codename Bathar reportedly joined the NLFT (BM) in the Year 2020 and has been continuing as its active member, said Nath.

"In recent years, large numbers of NLFT (BM) cadres have surrendered before BSF and other security forces, which indicates their eagerness to renounce the path of violence. It is pertinent to mention here that, till date, total of 31 Insurgents of NLFT including Khitish and Swapan have surrendered before BSF Tripura. Apart from that, between the time frame of 2017 to 2020, 23 cadres laid down arms, and in 2021 six insurgents surrendered", he added.

Nath on behalf of BSF Tripura Frontier appealed to the youth of the State not to get misguided by the false promises of the insurgent groups and not to follow the path of violence and extreme hardships. "Further, it is appealing to all the Cadres of NLFT to renounce violence and return back to the mainstream to lead a happy and peaceful family life."

"Besides, its persistence efforts on the Anti-Insurgency front, BSF has also been carrying out our other mandates including defending Indo-Bangladesh International Border and checking border crimes like smuggling, illegal infiltrations etc", a BSF press statement added.