2000 Bagber Massacre: When Bengali Hindu refugees were gunned down by Church-backed terror outfit in Tripura
The day was 20th May 2000. Terrorists belonging to the banned Christian Tripuri outfit, National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), gunned down Bengali Hindu refugees in Bagber village of Tripura. The ‘Bagber Massacre’ remains one of the deadliest ethno-religious episode of violence in the Northeastern State in the 21st century.
Bagber, which is located in the West Tripura district, was the home to a Bengali Hindu refugee camp at that time (who had to flee their homes due to ongoing conflict in the region).
On 20th May 2000, at about 5pm, NLFT terrorists laid siege to the home of a local CPIM politician (the ruling party in Tripura at that time) named Ajay Ghose. They hurled grenades at his house.
A group of Bengali Hindus, who had sought refuge at the adjacent Niranjan Sardarapara School, heard loud explosions and began running for safety. The banned Christian terror outfit then trained its guns towards the fleeing refugees, killing 3 instantly in the targeted attack.
NLFT terrorists then made their way to the Niranjan Sardarapara School and shot 16 more Bengali Hindus dead and injuring several others. A total of 19 Hindu refugees were killed on that fateful day. According to reports, an additional 6 victims later succumbed to injuries, thereby taking the total death toll to 25.
“The rebels first lobbed grenades into the school premises and then opened indiscriminate fire from automatic weapons. The camp inmates first took shelter in the primary school after their houses were gutted. The rebels attacked them with sharp weapons. Nineteen Bengalis including 10 women died on the spot,” a report by The Hindustan Times read.
The names of 19 out of 25 victims are stated below:
- Nabin Debnath
- Monica Debnath
- Nakul Debnath
- Rakhi Debnath
- Suklal Nama Das
- Premoda Debnath
- Nirmala Nama Das
- Abala Debnath
- Suniti Sarkar
- Supriya Debnath
- Usha Debnath
- Goranga Das
- Sikha Debnath
- Laxmirani Sarkar
- Kumkudini Debnath
- Kamalarani Laskar
- Birendra Debnath
- Dhanibala Debnath
- Surendra Debnath.
As per reports, violence also ensued on 21st May 2000, resulting in killings of more 10 victims at Ratiya, Teliamura and Chakmaghat (and taking total death toll to 45). An additional 100 cattle were also massacred by the Christian Tripuri terrorists.
The terror attack occured soon after the killing of 5 tribals in Teliamura by the banned Bengali terror outfit ‘United Bengali Liberation Front of Tripura.’
The aftermath of the Bagber Massacre
In the aftermath of the massacre, an estimated 30000 Bengali Hindus fled from the Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas. This was one of the sinsiter objectives of the NLFT behind the Bagber massacre.
One such Hindu victim named Shyam Lal Biswas narrated,”There is nothing left there. Our land is barren and there are no homes. What does the government want?”
Gauranga Das, speaking for displaced Hindus, stated, “The block development officer told me recently that I should try and convince some families to go back since this cant be a permanent solution. But our old homes have been taken over by the tribals. They live there. This is akin to pushing us back into the tigers lair.”
The ruling CPIM government had promised 24 tins and a meagre ₹2,000 cash to the displaced Bengali Hindu families to rebuild their homes in the new location.
Security lapses and political reactions
It is important to point out that a camp of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel was stationed just outside the Bagber village but they did not intervene during the attack.
The terrorists, estimated to be 60 in number, only fled after jawans from the Tripura State Rifles (TSR) arrived at the scene.
Former Chief Minister of Tripura, Nripen Chakraborty, had lashed out at the then ruling CPIM government over the Bagbar massacre.
“Manik Sarkar (the then CM) has failed to handle the situation. There is no dearth of leaders in the CPM to replace him,” he had infamously remarked.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had assured to deploy Army battalions in terror-torn parts of Tripura in the aftermath of the massacre.
Ethno-religious tensions in Tripura and rise and fall of the NLFT
The ethno-religious tensions in Tripura have deep historical roots dating back decades.
The large-scale settlement of Bengalis in the Northeastern State, first through active encouragement by Tripuri rulers, followed by the Parition of 1947 and the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, had been a bone of contention in the State.
The relationship between the tribal communities (who were being rapidly converted to Christianity) and the Bengali Hinduss became strained in the 1980s, resulting in escalated conflicts, violence and massacres.
In the context of these events, the Christian Tripuri outfit of National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) came into existence in March 1989. One of its primary objectives included ‘separation of Tripura’ from the Union of India .
“About 90 per cent of the top ranking NLFT cadres are Christians,” a report by South Asian Terrorism Portal noted. NLFT had the active backing of the Baptist Church of Tripura.
A report by the BBC stated, “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.“
The Chrisitian Tripuri terror outfit had the support of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan and terror outfits in Bangladesh
“Outfits such as the NLFT are buying arms, ammunition and modern communication gadgets from South-east Asian countries such as Singapore and Thailand and collecting them in Bangkok before bringing them to Chittagong in Bangladesh. Cox’s Bazaar is one of the major illegal arms centres in Bangladesh. The consignments are loaded into either ships or trawlers in Chittagong, a border district of Bangladesh, and transported to Tripura. These consignments are offloaded in the districts of Dholai, South Tripura and North Tripura and they reach various parts of the North-East via land routes through dense ravines. Tripura is the corridor for pushing arms into the northeast,” former Finance Minister of Tripura Badal Chowdhury told The Frontline.
NLFT has been responsible for multiple attacks against Bengali Hindu communities in various parts of Tripura throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. It has involved in what can be best described as ‘Christian terrorism.’
NLFT was initially banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967. It was finally disbanded in 2024 with the signing of the historic tripartitie ‘Tripura Peace Accord’ between Tripura government, Indian government and the NLFT.
Bagber massacre was not an isolated incident. 16 unarmed Bengali Hindus were ruthlessly killed in 2002 Singicherra massacre. The targeting of Bengali Hindus by the NLFT represents a troubling intersection of ethnic separatism and religious terrorism in the Northeastern State of Tripura.
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