Dead dumped in rivers

Press, 17 June 1980, Page 8

Dead dumped in rivers

NZPA-Reuter Dacca Hundreds of beheaded and decomposed bodies are flowing into Bangladesh through the Gumti and Sonai rivers from across the bordering Indian troubled state of Tripura, said the Bengali Daily “Irrefaq,” quoting official sources.. The paper, in a report from the eastern district of Comilla, bordering Tripura, said that the bodies, believed to have been thrown into the rivers in Tripura, had been detected downstream in Bangladesh during the last few days. District officials in Comilla, 88 kilometres from Dacca, have confirmed the reports and ordered the local

police tb salvage the bodies and take other nessasaYy steps. The reports said that while most of the bodies so far detected were beheaded, some also bore bullet and knife wounds. The paper also reported that on June 10 about 1000 Indian nationals who tried to cross the border into Bangladesh from Cosba outpost in Comilla were pushed back to Indian territory by the Bangladesh border force. Some of the Indian nationals, affected in recent violence in Tripura and Assam, escaped the force and had entered Comilla town, the report said. Reuter reported from New Delhi that Tripura State leaders had appealed for

emergency supplies of medi cine and food.

The Press Trust of India said the official death toll after 10 days of fighting stood at 343, with hundreds still missing. The Chief Minister (Mr Nripen Chakraborty) said almost 160,000 people were being sheltered in relief camps and nearly 1000 had been arrested. The killings came after a wave of anti-immigrant unrest in north-eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh. But the scale of the Tripura violence has been far beyond that of fighting elsewhere in the region and an official report said there had been “carnage . . a carried out with incredible speed and cruelty.”