40 years ago August 31, 1986: 14 gunned down in Tripura

On August 31, 1986, in Srirampur village of Kamalpur sub-division in North Tripura district, 14 people lost their lives and 10 sustained injuries after Tribal National Volunteer (TNV) extremists conducted a deadly raid. The perpetrators, allegedly led by "general" Kartick Koloi and numbering between 15 to 20, engaged in indiscriminate firing.

This incident occurred while Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was engaged in pre-summit consultations with other Non-Aligned Movement leaders to discuss strategies to assist frontline African states in countering potential retaliatory sanctions from South Africa.

Upon his arrival in Harare, Gandhi received a warm welcome and held discussions with Zimbabwean Prime Minister Robert Mugabe regarding matters to be addressed at the summit. Meanwhile, the President of the Pakistani National Awami Party, Khan Abdul Wali Khan, who was currently in the Soviet Union, made headlines with claims that Islamabad was interfering in India's internal affairs.

Wali Khan, son of the revered Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, had been actively involved in the fight for democracy in Pakistan. Tragically, Jagdish Lal, an Army porter in his early 30s, was among the casualties when Pakistani troops fired upon civilians in the 13th Digwar area, approximately 4 km from Poonch town. Kuldip Khuda, the Poonch police chief, confirmed the incident over the telephone, noting that Jagdish Lal was the second civilian to lose his life due to Pakistani troop firing in the Poonch sector during that month.