Agartala: The residents of Nikhil Sarkar Para of Gandacherra in Tripura’s Dhalai district on Sunday recalled the terror-stricken days of the 1990s when every passing day was horror due to armed insurgency.
24 –yrs old Rubel Chakraborty had performed the last ritual (Shradh) after 22 long years of waiting for the return of his father Nikhil Chakraborty who was kidnapped from Rima bridge of Gandacherra sometimes in June 2000 along with three others by armed activists of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).
Nikhil was a petty businessman and had gone to a village around 20 kilometers from the locality. While returning in the afternoon, the insurgents stopped their vehicles and kidnapped four including Nikhil. Later, the NLFT outfit demanded a ransom of Rs 10 Lakh from each of the victim’s families.
According to Rubel, after a long negotiation, each of the families had paid Rs 5 lakh to the insurgents after three months after the incident. The insurgents had assured their safe return on a number of occasions but, to the date, none of them returned back home.
“The insurgents over ground collaborators had informed one fine morning my father was released and it will take two days to come back home. And, we have been waiting for his arrival every day,” Rubel rued.
He stated that as per Hindu rituals, after 12 –years of missing any person is considered him or her ‘dead’ and added, “We wait for 10 years more to perform Shradh believing the words of the link man that they had received the payment and released my father. We couldn’t offer any puja or perform
any ritual at home since the day my father was kidnapped.”
