Agartala, July 24 - The Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) was instrumental in forming a Muslim-based terror group in Manipur, a senior police official said Friday.

Tripura Director General of Police (DGP) Pranay Sahaya said here that the Manipur based People's United Liberation Front (PULF), having established links with Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and trained in Bangladesh, was formed at the behest of the NSCN-IM.

'NSCN-IM had formed the PULF in 1995 and their cadre strength was 2,000, 90 percent of them Muslims,' he said.

The NSCN-IM has been operating a ceasefire with New Delhi since 1997. The Tripura police last week arrested seven PULF militants, including their self-styled army chief Mohammad Abdur Rahaman, in Agartala.

'The PULF militants, including a woman cadre, were arrested after they entered Agartala from Bangladesh,' the DGP told IANS.

Quoting Abdur Rahaman, the Tripura police chief said: 'The PULF supremo and his elder brother Mohammad Abdul Kalam Azad were killed by Manipur police in that state in February this year and after that the outfit become fragile.'

Rahaman told the Tripura police that Indian militants in Bangladesh started fleeing that country following a stepped up offensive by Dhaka.