Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar today (Jan 19, 2004) urged Bangladesh to flush out militants backed by al-Qaeda and Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) from its territory following the footsteps of Bhutan and said Bangladesh would have to face threats from them if it did not take action against the ultra outfits now.

"Bangladesh should take lessons from Bhutan and stop harbouring the militants, who frequently resorted to killing of innocents in Tripura, to maintain friendly ties with India. Those terrorist organisations will pose threat to Bangladesh one day if action is not taken against them," Sarkar told reporters at the airport Agartala.

Reiterating that his Government had definite information of about 51 training camps of militant outfits including All Tripura Tiger Task Force (ATTF) and National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) inside Bangladesh, Sarkar who left for Delhi said that if asked, he would once again furnish all documents to Union Home Minister L K Advani. "I am carrying all those statistics with me."

The Tripura Chief Minister said ahead of the recent SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit, he had written a letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to take up this issue with his Bangladesh counterpart on the sidelines of the summit.

"I believe that the Prime Minister had taken up this issue with Dhaka," he said.

To a question, he however, said there was no perceptible change in Dhaka's attitude as the ATTF and NLFT ultras continued their operation from that country. "I have got the report that two to three such militant groups have entered Tripura in the last few days."