Manas Pal
The people of Kalyanpur in Tripura have on Saturday revisited the memory of the horrifying night of 12 December, 1996.
Even after 24 years of the Bazar Colony genocide– gruesome killings of 24 innocent villagers of Bazar Colony by the militants– the pained memories still continue to haunt the locals
Bazar Colony genocide on this day in 1996 was committed by a murderous band of ATTF militants. The killer squad armed with AKs stealthily arrived at mid night and first cordoned off the entire village ( para) which was only a stone throw away from main Kalyanpur -Khowai road and also close to the police station .
The killers first set the houses aflame and as the sleepy villagers rushed out they were brutally shot dead, some were hacked to death.
Even the cattle were burnt. 24 were killed and several were injured… The bloodied bodies of men and women lay scattered in all conceivable places- behind the cattle shed, by the pond side, under the mango tree, beneath the cot, backyard of the burnt home…. everywhere…they were dead even before they could understand as to what actually happened…only those who were hacked saw the killers before falling on the ground and dying…
The scene was exactly like those you see in some Hollywood movies…and the killers looked like those Khmer rouge characters you see in the film “the Killing Field”…
The killers were led by ATTF commander Chitta Debbarma and the brutal genocide was ordered by ATTF president Ranjit Debbarma, who is now roaming around freely along with a politician.
The area Bazar Colony was also the locality of late CPM MLA Makhan Lal Chakrabarty…till 12 noon he was screaming – — Sob re maira laichhe …sob re maira laichhe…The Officer in Charge of Kalyanpur police station was Kshitish Debnath.
It was also only December 12 a young IPS Himangshu Gupta had taken over charge as SDPO Khowai–and within hours he had to face one of the worst killings. Later Himangshu Gupta changed cadre and left Tripura.
BJP Leader L K Advani and Tapan Sikdar visited the spot.
