Rebels in Tripura use pornography for funds - police

Yahoo India News: "Separatist leaders in a remote northeastern state of Tripura forced their cadre to perform in pornographic films to fund their cause, police said on Sunday, but rebels said authorities were trying to malign them.

Police said surrendered rebels of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) confessed that such films were sold in India, and neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar.

"We have many pornographic CDs with young women and men featuring in these movies which were handed over to us by some surrendered NLFT cadres," Ghanshyam Murari Srivastava, the police chief of Tripura told Reuters.

However, the rebels denied this.

"This is nothing but another propaganda war launched by the police to malign our image," an NLFT spokesman told Reuters.

Police said the rebel leaders frequently abused tribal women, ordinary villagers as well as members of the rebel group.

"But using them to produce pornography is a new trend," Srivastava said.

NLFT is fighting for a separate tribal homeland in Tripura, accusing New Delhi of flooding the state with immigrants.

Indian security officials said most of the pornographic material was filmed in the rebels' bases in Khagrachari district of Bangladesh.

India's northeast which comprises seven mountainous states and circled by China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar has been racked by insurgencies for decades. "