Ulfa swells with recruits

The president of All Assam Moran Students Union, Arun Jyoti Chutia, said it would be unfair to generalise that the Morans or any other community was pro-Ulfa. “If somebody goes to a militant outfit, it is his or her decision and has nothing to do with the community. But it is also true that the government is equally responsible for not fulfilling the genuine and long-pending demands of the community,” he added.

Chutia demanded that both New Delhi and Dispur step up the ongoing peace process with Ulfa and settle the issue in a time-bound manner.

A senior police official said they had received intelligence inputs that the Paresh Barua group was carrying out recruitment in lower and central Assam districts as well.

“The recruitment is being carried out in the rural areas, particularly from interior villages. Ulfa is recruiting youths from Goalpara, Dhubri, Barpeta, Kamrup, Nalbari and Baksa districts in lower Assam and Darrang and Morigaon in central Assam,” he said. “In Goalpara and Kamrup districts, Ulfa is recruiting youths mostly from the Rabha community. The recruitments are taking place in Rabha-dominated areas such as Dudhnoi in Goalpara and Boko in Kamrup,” the source said.

“Recruitments are also reportedly taking place at Patacharkuchi in Barpeta district, Tihu in Nalbari district and Barama in Baksa district,” he said.

According to him, the Paresh Barua group carried out most of the recruitments in the run-up to the Assembly polls when the security forces were focused on carrying out free, fair and peaceful elections.

He said it would be difficult to specify the number of youths recruited by the outfit as whatever intelligence information they had was general in nature.

“We are in the process of gathering as much intelligence as possible related to Ulfa recruitment. Apart from underground rebels, some overground organisations and individuals who are known to be sympathetic to Ulfa are believed to be helping the outfit recruit cadres. The matter is under investigation,” the source said.

Additional director-general of police (special branch) Khagen Sarma said there may be a few isolated cases of recruitment by the Paresh Barua group but denied that it was carrying out a “major recruitment” drive in the state.

“Whatever recruitment is taking place is on a very small scale and these are usually one-off incidents. There is nothing to worry about. In fact, the Ulfa’s strength is dwindling since a large number of its members was neutralised by the security forces in recent times. This is evident from the peaceful conduct of the Assembly polls in the state despite a threat by the outfit,” Sarma said.