Banned outfit United Liberation Front of Assam received a major blow when the Indian Army gunned down a senior leader of the outfit's dreaded 28th battalion and another cadre during a counter insurgency operation carried out on Friday in Manabhum reserve forest area in Arunachal Pradesh near the inter-state boundary with Upper Assam's Tinsukia district.

The ULFA militants, who were killed by 21 para-regiment unit from Dinjan base of 2 Mountain Division of the Indian Army, were identified as Himesawr Borsaikia alias Rameshwar Borsaikia and Bapu Moran.

Borsaikia, commander of a company of the 28th battalion of the outfit, was one of the most-wanted ULFA leaders. The Army claimed to have recovered one 9 mm pistol, two grenades, two improvised explosive devices, nine rounds of ammunition and cell phones from the possession of the slain militant commander.

The ULFA has reacted sharply to the killing of Borsaikia and in a statement the outfit accused the Army of killing the militants in cold blood while claiming it as an encounter killing. The ULFA accused the Army of flouting rules of 'war'.

Meanwhile, the Central government on Friday submitted an 'instruction' related to 'missing' leaders of the banned outfit in Guwahati High Court through its assistant solicitor-general in pursuant to the court order of March 13.

However, the court after examining the instruction from the Central government observed that an affidavit should accompany the instruction pertaining to the list of individuals handed over by the Royal Bhutan Army to India in the wake of Operation All Clear carried out against the ULFA in Bhutan in December 2003.

The two-member division bench of the high court, therefore, directed the Centre to file the affidavit within seven days time. The court also allowed seven days time to Assam government to file an affidavit regarding information about the ULFA leaders who allegedly went missing in December 2003 after they were handed over to Indian authorities by Bhutan. The court fixed 12 April as the date for next hearing of the case.

The court orders were in response to a habeas corpus petition filed by Jnanoma Moran alias Shyamolee Gogoi wife of a 'missing' ULFA man Ponaram Dihingia.