Tripura militants kidnap 16 labourers

Armed militants have kidnapped 16 people including Muslim labourers from India’s Mizoram state along the Tripura-Bangladesh border early Saturday, police said.
The incident occurred less than 24 hours after three militants of the same group ran away from their base in Bangladesh and surrendered to security forces not far from the site of the abductions.
Tripura police officials told bdnews24.com that a 'hit squad' of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) abducted at gunpoint 16 construction workers from Assam Saturday.
"The squad was led by NLFT commander Bomthong Jamatia. The labourers, some of them Bengali Muslims and some of the Chakma tribe, were dragged across to Zopui in Bangladesh just few kilometers away," a Tripura police official said. “All the 16 labourers were residents of southern Assam's Karimganj district."
He said Zopui is located in a very remote area of the northern Sajek range in Chittagong Hill Tracts where Bangladesh security forces hardly have any presence.