ULFA camp surrounded, 14 killed

While New Delhi is exploring peace with the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the Army’s Tezpur III Corps and Assam police...

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While New Delhi is exploring peace with the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the Army’s Tezpur III Corps and Assam police have virtually surrounded the outfit’s camp in the Tinsukia forests, leaving the 40-60 militants there with little option but to surrender.

The Army is tightlipped about the operation, but senior Home Ministry officials said that a division-level offensive is currently on against ULFA in the Dibru Saikhowa national park, 515 kms northeast of Guwahati.

Latest reports indicate that 14 militants have been killed in the operation—launched a fortnight ago—with security forces suffering at least one casualty.

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The officials said that the camp has been cut off, leaving the militants with no food or medicine—radio intercepts indicate that chances of a surrender are high.

A top Assam police official confirmed the operation to The Indian Express but said the ULFA death toll could not be given out as the area is thickly forested. He said that the ULFA cadre, who have emerged from camps in Myanmar, are being flushed out as the state government wants counter-insurgency operations to continue even though the ULFA and Centre are moving towards talks.

That a large-scale operation is on is evident from the fact that Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Army Chief General J J Singh are scheduled to visit Guwahati this week. Home Minister Shivraj Patil is also visiting the North-East this week.

Although the ULFA has threatened to call off the peace initiative, the Centre is not quite convinced about the group’s commitment towards talks—the feeling is that the latest overture is aimed at drawing public sympathy.

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In fact, in letters to the PMO, the ULFA has indicated that it is willing to talk only if the core issue of ‘‘sovereignty’’ is discussed. PM Manmohan Singh, in his letter to the ULFA leadership, has said that all core issues will be discussed, rather than focus only on sovereignty.

According to Home Ministry officials, around 700-800 ULFA cadres are active in upper Assam and Garo hills with their leadership safe in Bangladesh. And while the ULFA has formed a People’s Consultative Group (PCG) to negotiate the terms and conditions of a dialogue with National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, the talks may result in a stalemate as Assam’s Congress CM Tarun Gogoi does not want the operations to stop.