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Church backing
Tripura rebels'
'Church backing Tripura
rebels'
By Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta
news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english...717775.stm
The government in India's north-eastern state of Tripura says it
has
evidence that the state's Baptist Church is involved in backing
separatist
rebels.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said state police had
uncovered details
of the alleged link after questioning a church leader.
Nagmanlal Halam, secretary of the Noapara Baptist Church in
Tripura, was
arrested late on Monday with a large quantity of explosives.
Mr Sarkar said that allegations about the close links between the
state's
Baptist Church and the rebel National Liberation Front of Tripura
(NLFT)
have long been made by political parties and police.
Now for the first time, he said, hard evidence supporting the
allegations
had been found.
Explosives
Mr Sarkar told the BBC that Mr Halam was found in possession of
more than 50
gelatine sticks, 5kg of potassium and 2kg of sulphur and other
ingredients
for making explosives.
He said that two other junior members of the same church, arrested
last
week, had tipped the police off about the explosives which were
meant for
the NLFT rebels.
The chief minister said that Mr Halam confessed to buying and
supplying
explosives to the NLFT for the past two years.
Another church official, Jatna Koloi, was arrested in south
Tripura last
week.
Police say Mr Koloi had received training in guerrilla warfare at
an NLFT
base last year.
Conversion
Guards have been placed outside the headquarters of the Baptist
Church in
Tripura's capital, Agartala, to prevent possible attacks on it
once the news
of Mr Halam's arrest spread.
The NLFT is accused of forcing Tripura's indigenous tribes to
become
Christians and give up Hindu forms of worship in areas under their
control.
Last year, they issued a ban on the Hindu festivals of Durga Puja
and
Saraswati Puja.
The NLFT manifesto says that they want to expand what they
describe as the
kingdom of God and Christ in Tripura.
The Baptist Church in Tripura was set up by missionaries from New
Zealand 60
years ago.
It won only a few thousand converts until 1980 when in the
aftermath, of the
state's worst ethnic riot, the number of conversions grew.
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CHURCH OFFICIAL ARRESTED FOR AIDING INSURGENTS
The Pioneer Tuesday, April 18, 2000
Agartala (Agencies) - Secretary of a Baptist Christian Missionary
church in
North Tripura District has been arrested by CRPF on charges of
aiding
insurgents and
keeping huge explosive materials, official sources said here on
Monday.
Acting on a tip-off, CRPF raided a shop at Noagaon on Sunday and
arrested
its owner, who is also the secretary of the church at the village,
DIG CRPF,
I S Gill told
newsmen.
CRPF recovered five kg of potassium, one kg sulphur, few gelatin
sticks and
45 gm of high explosive materials, the DIG said.
He said, CRPF during its special operation in North Tripura
District on
Saturday last arrested one NLFT insurgent.
On the basis of his statement, the jawans arrested another
insurgent and the
church secretary on Sunday, he added.
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