Senior Maoist leader Koteswar Rao, alias Kishenji, as per some reports, was captured on November 23 somewhere between West Bengal and Assam and brought to Midnapore where he was reportedly shot dead. The official version is that he was killed after a firefight at Burisole jungle in Jamboni area, West Midnapore, close to Kushboni near the Jharkhand border.
Days later, the United Liberation Front of Asom renewed its threat to launch attacks in Assam, where Kishenji had gone to meet and coordinate activities with Ulfa just before he was killed. On November 27, four Ulfa terrorists clashed with the police in Dibrugarh district.
On November 17, the Army busted an Ulfa hideout in Namsai reserve forest area in Arunachal Pradesh, killing three terrorists, who were reportedly there on an organised extortion drive in Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border areas. Two of those killed were identified as Kapil Bora and Ramen Gogoi and the Army recovered one AK-47 rifle and grenades from the hideout.
Kishenji reportedly succeeded in sneaking into Assam with the assistance of a few “former members” of the Ulfa to establish his outfit’s bases in the Northeast and develop further contacts with other rebel groups there. This daily has, in a number of features and reports, brought out the Maoists’ contacts not only with the Ulfa, but also with the People’s Liberation Army and the NSCN-IM.
Kishenji had reportedly voiced his opinion about the need for good relations with terrorist groups of the Northeast as revealed in an interview to a mouthpiece of the Maoists, and stressed on the need for maintaining links with the Ulfa. Maoists have signed an agreement with the PLA of Manipur while the Ulfa has strong relations with the PLA.
PLA even sent a few of its cadres to assist the Paresh Baruah’s hardline faction of the Ulfa to re-launch terrorist attacks in Assam. The Army’s November 17 operation confirms the Ulfa’s reach into neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh also.
Both Kishenji’s and other Maoists’ earlier entries into Assam as well as extortion and recruitment efforts by Ulfa are a result of Assam’s political leadership’s soft approach to terrorism and criminal activities of Ulfa.
This daily’s report by its Guwahati correspondent on November 21 stated that the MHA is worried about the three-pronged strategy of elusive Ulfa chief Paresh Baruah who has recruited more than 120 new cadres in the past six months, revamped its political wing and extorting money from leading business houses in Assam. Most of the new recruits are from Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Sibasagar districts of Assam. Disclosing that these new cadres are being trained in the Burma camp of Ulfa, security sources regretted the state police was underestimating the reviving capacity of the Ulfa or ignoring it but the fact remains that they are still getting cadres to carry forward their armed struggle in the state.
This report also cited security sources lamenting the casual approach of Assam state administration, which is alleged to have not been following up their alerts to check the Ulfa rebels. The killing of Kapil Bora, a hardcore Ulfa rebel with two others in Arunachal Pradesh by the Army has also exposed that many Ulfa cadres who were allowed to get out on bail have gone back to Baruah’s Ulfa group again or some of them are suspected to have been working for the Maoists. The home ministry had alerted the state administration recently, referring specific names of four business houses, being threatened by the Ulfa for extortion but the state home department instead of taking action, circulated the names of those Guwahati-based businessmen to all the district SPs and DCs.
Pointing out that it was not required, the security sources said that such action of the state administration may dissuade businessmen from approaching the security forces. Security sources said that taking the refrain of concrete evidence, the state police was also reluctant in mounting pressure over ground sympathisers of the outfit. Meanwhile, elusive Ulfa chief has already declared to revamp political wings of the outfit to carry forward its quest for “sovereign” Assam. In a statement to the local media anti-talk faction of the Ulfa has indicated that the outfit has started exercise to fill the vacuum created by Arbinda Rajkhowa’s departure and that the permanent political set-up of the outfit will be made public in November.
In a release issued on November 20, Arunodoi Dohotiya, publicity secretary of the hardline faction of the Ulfa, said that the split in the ranks of the outfit is now formal and that the Ulfa would not have an executive body but a three-member permanent committee with the possibility of expanding the same to one with as many as 16 committee in the near future. The hardline faction has decided to appoint three prominent persons, who “support the demand for sovereignty of Assam”, as “political advisers”.
The hardline faction has announced that if Ulfa “chairman” Arabinda Rajkhowa or any other leader returns to the outfit, due honour would be given to them. This statement, in the light of reports of a strong division in the ranks of Ulfa on the issue of talks with the government of India, while Baruah and his supporters maintaining a tough stand is strange, to say the least.
Security sources said Ulfa’s hardline faction has launched a fresh recruitment drive in a bid to strengthening the outfit and according to information available, at least 150 new cadres have been recruited in the last six months. This again confirms what this newspaper had earlier this year brought out that the pro-talks leaders roaming freely in the state has resulted in rural youth getting attracted/motivated to join the depleted ranks of the Ulfa, which Baruah has been desperately trying to fill with new recruits.
Meanwhile, on the night of November 20-21, at about 12.40 am, two Ulfa terrorists of the anti-talk faction were killed in an IED blast when they tried to plant the bomb in the railway track at Chaurangabam village, in between Bhojo and longpatia railway stations under Tinsukia railway division. The IED, which exploded before it could be planted in the railway track, was meant to blow up the Up-Kamrup Express, scheduled to pass by that area within one hour. A crater of about three metres long and two feet deep was created in the railway track. Army personnel recovered the bodies of two Ulfa cadres in a very badly mutilated condition at a distance of about 200 metres from the place of the blast in a nearby paddy field. The deceased militants were identified as Ramen Dhadumia alias Jitu Bora, a self-styled “sergant major” of Ulfa’s 28th Battalion and Hiren Gogoi, a self-styled “sergeant”.
The latest on the extradition of Anup Chetia, “general secretary”, Ulfa, is that while the extradition treaty between India and Bangladesh is likely to be signed by January 2012, Bangladesh home secretary Monzur Hossain said there were legal tangles but hinted that Dhaka was trying its best to co-operate with India. The legal tangle relates to Chetia applying to the UNHCfR, for a refugee status in a third country. “Legal matters are not in our hands (as) they are sub-judice. Once that is done, we will take appropriate action at the earliest,” Hossain told reporters at a joint briefing with Union home secretary R.K. Singh. Chetia is being eagerly awaited by the pro-talks leaders who are expecting him to join them.
There are too many flaws and loopholes in the approach of both Central and state governments to the Ulfa’s pro-talk members, who became agreeable to talks only because they were captured and jailed. The fact that some of them have cleverly used the ploy to agree to talks, get released from jail and then hightail it back to Baruah’s anti-talks faction means that they have not changed and as very often in the past, are taking advantage of their released status and may even be covertly assisting or facilitating anti-national activities. Both the Central and state governments must take the entry of Maoists into the Northeast very seriously and nip in the bud any further “unification” or the resurrection of the Ulfa.