AGARTALA: Days after two journalists were reportedly attacked in Sepahijala district, media persons claimed that security personnel are hand-in-glove with drug peddlers in the state. Journalists’ bodies of the state have issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the government to bring the attackers to book.Senior journalist Biplab Chakraborty, who was allegedly assaulted by a group of unidentified miscreants in Melaghar of Sepahijala district on Sunday evening, claimed that security personnel, working in close association with drug peddlers, had carried out the attack on him. Chakraborty was on the way to Sonamura in his personal car when reported miscreants dressed up as security personnel blocked his way with their vehicle and asked him to get down. He was then assaulted by these miscreants who thereafter fled the spot.Another local journalist Sadeq Mia tailed the vehicle that the miscreants were in. The vehicle then came to a halt after which Mia reportedly saw cannabis being loaded on to it. The consignment had been brought to the spot by some private vehicles. The miscreants spotted Mia and then reportedly started assaulting him. Mia said he was pulled deep inside a nearby jungle and the miscreants beat him up badly.Mia said, “They were about to shoot me inside the jungle and I feared that my fate would be the same as Sudip Datta Bhowmik. But then suddenly my mobile phone rang, after which the miscreants left me. I somehow made my way back later in the evening.”Veteran journalist Subal Kumar Dey said on Tuesday, “From recent instances, it appears that a section of the police has joined hands with the drug peddlers. In the last 10 months, about 15 police officers of different ranks have been either suspended or arrested for having connections with drug peddlers.” Dey further alleged that the men in uniform are targeting journalists who are speaking about the nexus between police and illegal drug traders.Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb on Tuesday directed director general of police (DGP) AK Shukla to arrest the accused behind the attacks. Punishment should also be meted out to those guilty of intimidating journalist Ashis Chakraborty, he reportedly told the DGP. Chakraborty had said that the miscreants had identified the entry and exit points of his house and were keeping a watch on him.Official records state that 660 persons were arrested under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 in connection with 443 cases of illegal drug dealing in Tripura in the last 10 months. However, 453 were later released on bail.Earlier this month, the Tripura high court had called into question the nature of anti-drug operations in the state. While hearing a bail petition of a person accused in a drug smuggling case, chief justice of Tripura high court Sanjay Karol asked DGP Shukla to furnish all details of narcotics-related cases by January 29. He asked what had happened to the 65,000 kg cannabis, more than 1.12 lakh bottles of Phensedyl and 3 kg heroin seized by state police during the anti-drugs drive.The advocate of the petitioner had argued in court that while police always speak about seizing drugs and psychotropic substances, there has been no record of where the items were stored or destroyed over the past 10 months — leading to a “confusion” over police’s role in the drive. The court expressed reservations about the arrests and said it needs to see if all the accused were indeed arrested in connection with drug trafficking.The Tripura government had also set up a three-member advisory board, headed by retired high court judge Justice Swapan Chandra Das, in November last year to review narcotic smuggling, storage and cultivation. However, the board has reportedly not had a single meeting yet.

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