Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura

Tripura received a major jolt ahead of the Independence Day celebrations as two Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were killed on August 3 Tuesday in an ambush under RC Nath Indo-Bangladesh Border Outpost (BOP) in the Dhalai district of Tripura.

The incident took place between 5.30 AM to 6.30 AM on Tuesday when a team of BSF out for patrol came under attack, confirmed a BSF official in the condition of anonymity.

The official said the two BSF personnel of the 64th battalion were posted in RC Nath BOP and identified as Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Duru Ram Singh and Constable Raj Kumar succumbed to their injuries.

“The jawans were ambushed by around 10 armed militants, who were suspected to be from the NLFT (BM) group. Efforts are on to locate the perpetrators of the attack,” the official said.

“Every day in the early morning at first light, the BSF jawans check the fence to see if it is damaged. When the jawans reached somewhere near the fencing, they were ambushed by the militant party in which two BSF personnel made supreme sacrifice,” the official added.

Tripura shares an 856-km long international border with neighbouring Bangladesh, of which 67-km area is unfenced.