Three days after police firing on protesters from tribal organizations left 23 injured, six of them seriously, at Madhav Bari in Jirania, the Tripura government on Thursday ordered a magisterial probe into the incident.
"The magisterial inquiry will go over everything that happened at Madhav Bari since morning on Tuesday (the day of the firing) and the report will be made public in the shortest possible time," chief minister Biplab said here on Thursday, accompanied by revenue minister NC Debbarma, president of BJP ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), at a time when tribal organizations and parties have stepped up pressure on the government to take action against the police firing.
"The magisterial inquiry will go over everything that happened at Madhav Bari since morning on Tuesday (the day of the firing) and the report will be made public in the shortest possible time," chief minister Biplab said here on Thursday, accompanied by revenue minister NC Debbarma, president of BJP ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), at a time when tribal organizations and parties have stepped up pressure on the government to take action against the police firing.
All those who were injured, Deb said, are out of danger and responding
well to treatment. However, one Twipra Students' Federation (TSF)
worker, Sumit Debbarma, sustained a bullet injury in the upper left side
of his chest and the bullet exit his body from the left side of his
waist and is still undergoing treatment in Kolkata.
The chief minister accused tribal organizations Indigenous
Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) and its student wing TSF of operating
in collusion with CPM protesters. "INPT and TSF extended solidarity to
the North East Students' Organisation's strike against the Citizenship
(Amendment) Bill on the same day that Left organizations were staging a
protest for labour reform," Deb said. "Left cadres reportedly got
together with INPT workers and started setting shops on fire and
challenged security forces," he added. Defending police action, Deb
further said, "Police followed procedure before opening fire.
Unfortunately, three protesters and a Tripura State Rifles jawan
received bullet injuries in the scuffle."
Projecting IPFT as the tribal party with the "greatest acceptance"
among the tribals, Deb said, "We are working with IPFT for the
development of tribal communities ... No attempt to disrupt amity
between tribal and non-tribal communities will be tolerated by the
government."
IPFT's rebel Tipraha faction has announced it will observe January 8,
when the bill was passed by Lok Sabha, as 'Black Day' every year.
Demanding a high-level enquiry into the incident, former chief minister
and leader of the opposition Manik Sarkar in a statement held BJP
workers responsible for provoking the trouble.
