Tripura trooper guns down five of family

Agartala, April 27 (IANS) A Tripura State Rifles (TSR) trooper Friday gunned down five of his family members, including his wife and two other women, following a family dispute, police said.

"TSR rifleman Bijoy Reang, 25, suddenly entered his in-laws house at Dhumachara in northern Tripura late Friday night and sprayed bullets from his service rifle killing five people, including three women, on the spot," Inspector General of Police Nepal Das told IANS.

The victims include Reang's wife, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law and brother-in-law.

"After the massacre, the TSR trooper ran away. Police launched a search operation to nab him," Das added.

Senior police officials immediately after the incident have rushed to the tribal dominated village, 185 km north of here.

According to the police, Reang recently married another girl keeping the first wife in the dark. When she came to know about it, she filed a case with police. "Filing of the case is the root cause of the incident," Das added.

The Tripura Police's most elite unit, TSR, has earned kudos from the prime minister of India and many state governments, besides various central paramilitary forces, for successfully flushing out over four-decade-long terrorism in the northeastern state.