The Army on Wednesday claimed to have blocked the routes used by the United Liberation Front of Assom to bring in weapons and personnel from its bases in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

"We have ensured that all routes are plugged, making it difficult for the ULFA to bring in weapons and its trained cadres from their bases in neighbouring countries," said Lieutenant General B S Jaswal, who is the operational head of the three-tier unified command created for counter-insurgency operations in Assam.

The commander added that because of the constant pressure by the Army, a large number of ULFA militants were facing a shortage of food and medicines in their jungle camps. The Army has virtually cut off supply routes to the ULFA camps inside Myanmar and the forests of Arunachal Pradesh, claimed Jaswal.

"We know about the plight and hardship faced by ULFA cadres in jungle camps by intercepting the communications within the outfit," said Lieutenant General Jaswal.

He claimed that the recent arrest of Prabal Neog, the commander of the ULFA's 28th battalion, has led to frustration and disillusionment among the lower ranks of the outfit. Jaswal added that the intra-group clashes may lead to a split in the outfit in the near future.

He said that the ULFA's striking power was on the wane and it was a positive sign that Assamese people were showing their anger and revulsion to terrorism, as proved by the recent lynching of six terrorists. "The ULFA is in a desperate state and so it has started focussing on soft targets," he added.

"Terrorists have a limited life span and the final fate of Jammu and Kashmir [Images] and Punjab terrorists are classic examples of this. So will be the case with Assam. Once people start showing their revulsion towards terrorists, their life span will get further shortened," the Army general said.

He said that the pressure on the ULFA will not be eased and he disapproved of any ceasefire unless the militant outfit agreed to disarm all its cadres and put them in designated camps.

Jaswal said that it was more difficult to keep a check on terrorists when they attacked soft targets. He added that the security forces were in the process of procuring sophisticated detection devices to prevent militants from hitting soft targets.