She's no Jinx. Nor does she have the drop-dead-gorgeous looks of any of Charlie's Angels. But Dwipamani Kalita, 25, displayed more daring and panache than any of these screen sirens when carrying out two mortar attacks in the heart of Guwahati late last year.

Kalita, a member of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom, revealed on Sunday how she had joined the extremist organisation and was sent to carry out attacks in the Assamese capital.

She had attacked the high-security Assam Legislative Assembly campus singlehanded, shocking the entire country. She also attacked the Asom Gana Parishad head office in the city, killing three persons and injuring 21 others, including a former member of Parliament.

Assam's Director General of Police Hare Krishna Deka not only gave details of how ULFA had been carrying out its attacks, but produced Dwipamani Kalita alias Sima Biswas alias Sima Sonowal before a group of reporters.

"Dwipamani's is an interesting case," Deka said. She was a typical victim of social ostracisation and family trauma, which led her to become a rebel. She lost her father when she was an infant, and grew up in a household that was ostracised by society, for reasons she cannot recollect now, in Nalbari district, the hotbed of ULFA's subversive activities in Assam.

Though a bright student, having passed her matriculation and higher secondary examinations with distinction, Kalita was deprived of support or love from her immediate family or friends, said Inspector General of Police (special branch) Khagen Sharma, who played a major role in getting her to surrender.

Kalita joined ULFA in 1998, where top leaders of the terrorist group were quick to spot her anger and loneliness. She was sent as a member of a special squad for training in the use of mortars in Bangladesh.

After undergoing training at an unknown location three hours' drive away from Dhaka, in what looked like the official firing range of a security agency, Kalita was sent to Guwahati and told to lie low, carrying out occasional attacks to cause panic.

Kalita even bought a plot of land and constructed a house on the outskirts of Guwahati. She operated alone under the veil of anonymity. "Unlike other ULFA cadres, she travelled by public transport, did not carry a cell phone, nor did she call up the leadership from Guwahati after she was sent out on this mission," IGP Sharma said.

According to the officer, Kalita used city buses to carry the two-inch mortars with which she launched attacks on the Dispur capital complex in October and the busy commercial area of Ambari on Christmas night. "Her most potent weapon was her complete anonymity," he said.

Interestingly, even as the police were searching small vehicles and two-wheelers in the city for the terrorists responsible for the attacks, Kalita began calling up the special branch chief and taunting him for having failed to catch the culprits. 

Dwipamani said, "I used to heap insults on the IGP and sarcastically remark that the police cannot catch ULFA cadres. Gradually, however, Sharma Sir started talking me out of the destructive life I was leading, and showed me how life can be a joy rather than the nightmare I have gone through so far."

The officer made her realise, she said, that ULFA leaders like Paresh Barua, Raju Barua, Drishti Rajkhowa and Ram Gogoi were simply using her like a destructive machine.

DGP Deka has announced that the police will rehabilitate Kalita in a 'non-conventional way' by supporting her education and giving her whatever help she needs to settle down in life.