A senior police official told newspersons here today that the state government has recently transferred these officials for allegedly maintaining links with terrorists.

The state government had not yet taken any action against those 94 employees who were transferred in view of insufficient evidence and documents, the Chief Minister told the assembly in its just-concluded session.

In a recent circular to the state government employees, the state chief secretary V Thulasidas, submitted a list of government employees with suspected links with extremist outfits banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

In the circular, issued under the advice of the Union Home Ministry, the chief secretary also asked the departmental headsthat since adequate evidence of their association with those outfits required for launching prosecution, was not available and disclosure of available evidence was likely to expose the sources, it was not possible to initiate criminal prosecution against them.

Therefore, it has been decided to shift them from their existing places of posting to places where they would have less scope to maintain such covert links, the circular said.

The chief secretary directed the departmental heads that necessary action may be taken to issue transfer orders immediately and while processing the transfers, care should be taken to ensure that the grounds for transfer are not indicated in the noting. The matter should be kept strictly confidential Commenting on the issue, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said ``we are hopeful that these employees would rectify themselves and snap links with the militants.''

in a separate circular, the chief secretary warned other state government employees against maintaining any links withthe underground tribal guerrillas in the state, an official said.

The official said the circular pointed out that if any state government employee or anybody was found having any connection with the militants, especially the banned extremist outfits -- National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) -- the person would be punished according to the law.

The circular said that the ATTF and the NLFT had been declared unlawful associations under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act, 1967. The circular pointed out that the act provided that ``if a person takes part in, commits, advocates, abets, advises, incites the commission of any unlawful activity or assists, he/she shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may be extended to seven years or fine or both.''

Meanwhile, the Tripura Government has created a special task force to effectively guide the ongoing counter-insurgency operation in the state. Senior deputy inspector general of policeTarit Kumar Sanyal has been appointed the head of the special task force (STF).

In the same order, issued here on Thursday, the entire state has been divided into two ranges -- southern range and northern range -- to intensify the counter-insurgency operation against the militants. Two senior IPS officers of DIG rank have been appointed to look after the functioning of the two ranges. They are C Balasubramaniam (southern range) and K Nagraj (northern range).