Paramilitary troops to go to Tripura

The Indian government says it will deploy an additional three-thousand paramilitary troops to fight separatist rebels in the north-eastern state of Tripura.

The Home Secretary, Kamal Pandey -- who has just visited Tripura -- said that the Delhi government would not, however, deploy regular army battalions in Tripura, as they are needed in Kashmir.

The state's Left Front government has been demanding deployment of five army battalions following recent violence which left more than fifty people dead.

The chief minister of Tripura, Manik Sarkar, has said that only the army is competent to launch massive counter-insurgency operations, as it had done in the neighbouring state of Assam. The Home Secretary said the rebel groups in Tripura were welcome to come forward for talks with Delhi, but only if they attached no preconditions.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service