ULFA hideouts put Arunachal on edge

The Union Government on Tuesday said the ULFA has set up bases in Arunachal Pradesh to facilitate their movement.

The Union Government on Tuesday said the ULFA has set up bases in Arunachal Pradesh to facilitate their movement. “Reports indicate that the ULFA has established temporary camps and hideouts in Arunachal Pradesh,” Union Minister of State for Home S Regupathy told the Lok Sabha in reply to a written question. He said the Government has taken several measures to deal with the activities of ULFA which include declaring the outfit as “unlawful association” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and declaring the whole of Assam and its 20 km belt with Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh as a “disturbed area”.

Meanwhile, worried over the increasing presence of ULFA and NSCN cadres within its territory, the state government has sent several requests to the Union Home Ministry to take appropriate steps to deal with the menace.

While the two south-eastern districts of Arunachal—Tirap and Changlang—have witnessed the presence of large number of militants from both Assam and Nagaland for several years now, these militants have of late also started spreading out to Lohit district in the north of Changlang. “They take advantage of the thick forests. The state police is virtually absent because of very little population there,” an army official said. These regions have also witnessed inter-group clashes between the cadres of two factions

of NSCN.

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“Due to the terrain, it is difficult to keep them under control. Moreover, most rebels do not stay there permanently and use these districts as corridors and hideouts,” a senior army official said.

Both Tirap and Changlang are located along the India-Myanmar border, beyond which the NSCN(K) has two major camps. While one such camp is used by the ULFA’s 28th battalion, the other camp is said to house three other groups—ULFA, People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and United National Liberation Front (UNLF), the last two being Manipur-based groups.

In January, many ULFA cadres fled from Tinsukia and took refuge in Arunachal Pradesh following a crackdown after the rebels had killed over 60 Hindi-speaking people in the same district.

For the army, the main problem is the non-existence of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and the Disturbed Areas Act. This year, at least 25 ULFA rebels have been apprehended and about half a dozen killed by the army in the state.