Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who cancelled his trip to Delhi today, reviewed the situation a an high-level emergency meeting and directed the border security force to seal the border to prevent the guerillas from crossing over.

The militants of the banned All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), armed with sophisticated firearms stormed the weekly Panchabati market, about 60 kms from here, and pumped bullets killing 17 non-tribals and seriously wounding eleven. They also kidnapped five villagers at gun point. Initially, the local people thought they were Assam Rifles jawans as they wore a similar dressolive green.

Suddenly the terrorists rained bullets on the people, killing seven on the spot. Several others suffered injuries, of whom ten succumbed in two government hospitals.Eleven people, most of them critical, were being treated at the GB hospital.

Director General of Police, K B Singh said that an operation to nab the extremists had been launched by Assam Rifles, Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Tripura State Rifles (TSR) and state police. Senior police officials, including DIG (western range) C Balasubrammaniam, were closely supervising the counter-insurgency operation.

The BSF had been asked to tighten vigil along the Indo-Bangla border with Tripura to prevent the ultras from crossing the border. Meanwhile, a dawn-to-dusk bandh is being observed today in certain parts of west Tripura to protest against the massacre. The bandh has been called by the ruling CPI(M), which is demanding additional central para-military forces to intensify the counter-insurgency operation in the state.

Opposition Congress and BJP have demanded resignation of the CPI(M) led left front government for their ``failure to curb militancy.''

Tripura PradeshCongress Committee (TPCC) president Gopal Roy, in a statement, demanded the resignation of the state government and imposition of President's Rule and extension of disturb areas act in the entire state. The TPCC has called an emergency meeting here today to review the situation and also to chalkout their agitational programme.

In separate statements here, Trinamool Congress state unit president Sudhir Ranjan Majumder, its convenor ratan chakraborty, TPCC vice president Jawahar Saha, and opposition leader Samir Ranjan Barman also demanded promulgation of President's Rule in the state.

All-party `Tripura bandh' on Tuesday
AGARTALA: All political parties including the ruling Left Front have given a call for a `Tripura bandh' on Tuesday against insurgency.

While the ruling Left Front has called a dawn-to-dusk bandh demanding more forces from the centre to help the CPI(M)-led government deal with insurgency, the Trinamool Congress has called for a 12-hour bandh demanding immediate resignation ofthe Manik Sarkar government for, what it termed, "its inability to protect the life and property of the people".

Meanwhile, life was totally paralysed in the Sidhai area of west district following the 12-hour bandh called by the CPI(M) today to protest the killing. Shops, offices and schools were closed and vehicles remained off the roads, a report reaching here from Sidhai said.