CALCUTTA - The Indian army was granted sweeping shoot on sight powers in the north east state of Tripura yesterday after tribal separatist rebels killed 22 people in three remote villages. "The situation is extremely volatile," Tripura's home minister, Mr Samar Chowdhury, said in the state capital, Agartala. He said the army and paramilitary reinforcements had been given powers to arrest and indefinitely detain suspects.
Separatists belonging to the All Tripura Tiger Force killed 22 Bengali settlers and set ablaze at least 100 homes in the villages of Purbaramachandraghat and Ganda Basti in the western section of the state, then fired on fleeing residents. Tripura shares an 840 km border with Bangladesh. The state's indigenous tribal population has been reduced to a minority by Bengali Hindu immigrants who dominate local politics and the economy.