CPIM observes martys day in Tripura

CPIM Tripura State Committee on Friday observed the 25th Martyrs day to commemorate the deaths of 13 people, including 11 party cadre, who were brutally murdered during the Congress-led regime 25 years ago. Eleven CPI-M cadres and two security personnel were butchered in Birchandra Manu village in 1988 when the Congress-led government ruled the state. A series of programmes has been planned by the CPI-M to mark the day. People assembled in large numbers Friday at Birchandra Manu, about 85 km from here, where a 50-foot memorial was built earlier in honour of those killed.

CPI-M politburo member and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, addressed the gathering.

With assembly elections due in Tripura in February next year, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar today alleged that opposition parties were conspiring to incite communal tension between tribals and non-tribals and to use insurgents to snatch power through the back door. 

Com Manik Sarkar called for the installation of the seventh Left Front government in the state to give a fitting reply to the Congress which he said was trying to come back to power through the back door by inciting communal tension.  "Formation of the seventh Left Front government is very significant because the entire country is looking at Tripura how it survives after the debacle of the Left in Kerala and West Bengal," the chief minister said.

"Our victory will give a new orientation to the Left movements in the country, Sarkar, a CPI(M) politburo member said. Referring to killing of 13 people including 11 party activists including an Executive member of Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council on this day in 1966, allegedly by the Congress, the chief minister said it was a barbaric incident. "It was barbaric, but not exceptional because Congress and reactionary forces have tried to throttle the Communist movement by using barbaric ways," the chief minister said at Birchandra Manu, 

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary Bijon Dhar alleged that during the Congress-led coalition's regime (February 1988-April 1993), total 301 CPI-M leaders and workers were murdered across the state. "Ahead of the assembly elections, we want to expose the killings and anti-people policies of the Congress before the people, especially the new generation," he said.