Tinsukia District's Superintendent of Police Prasanta Bhuyan told PTI in Dibrugarh that hardcore ULFA militant Dhruba Kujur, who belonged to the its '28 battalion', had masterminded and carried out the attack.
According to a source in the Army, the top leader of the ULFA's 28th battalion, which is most dreaded and highly active in eastern Assam districts, was handed over to the police in Tinsukia district on Saturday.
The Government of India has extended the ban on the United Liberation Front of Assam and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland with a fresh notification making it clear that operation against hawkish factions of these two outfits would continue notwithstanding the on-going peace process involving doves of both the outfits.
The outlawed anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam on Sunday took exception to All Indian Congress Committee general secretary, Rahul Gandhi's comment referring to 'suspected illegal migrants from Bangladesh' lodged in camps of violence-displaced people in western Assam as Indian citizens.
Assam has been put on red alert as gun-toting United Liberation Front of Asom militants were on a rampage in three Upper Assam districts where they have mowed down 48 people since Friday, including 28 on Saturday.
A United Liberation Front of Asom terrorist was on Tuesday killed in an encounter with security forces in Assam's Goalpara district bordering Meghalaya.
The banned ULFA has been engaged in an armed conflict with the Indian forces for the last 27 years demanding 'restoration of sovereignty of Assam', the core demand of the outfit.
After lying low for the last two years since one of its factions declared unilateral ceasefire, United Liberation Front of Asom militants attacked a tea planter and a garden employee and torched vehicles in upper Assam along Arunachal Pradesh.
The anti-talks faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam launched an assault on a police station at Namtola in Sonari sub-division of Assam's Sivasagar district bordering Nagaland late Monday night injuring a commando jawan while causing damage to the property of the police station.
The ULFA leadership has been demanding the release from jail of five of its top leaders as one of the conditions for facilitating peace talks with the government.
Thousands of ULFA cadres have either surrendered or been arrested, but none of them had confessed to any arms deal with the LTTE.
Have the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and ULFA's Paresh Barua faction joined forces?
It is not yet clear whether Kuldeep's release has been secured by paying ransom to the militants.
An unidentified ULFA militant died while the bomb he was carrying in his bicycle exploded on the road. No one else was injured in the incident.
The banned United Liberation Front of Assam on Friday demanded release of its top leaders from jail to do the spadework to hold talks with the government, and clarified that it had never stated in any point of time that talks could be held without commander-in-chief Paresh Barua.
Security concerns prompted the authorities to hold a camp court inside the Central jail in Guwahati on Thursday afternoon for production of arrested United Liberation Front of Assam Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Raju Barauh and Rajkhowa's body guard Raja Bora.
All the top leaders of the United Liberation Front of Assam led by 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa submitted their charter of demands to Home Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi on Friday, paving way for the peace process with the government.
The anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam has called for 12-hout Assam bandh on May 26 to protest the visit of the united Progressive Alliance chairman and Congress President Sonia Gandhi to Guwahati on that day.
The anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom has struck close coordination with Garo National Liberation Army, a Garo tribe terrorist group waging war demanding a separate state for their tribe in Meghalaya, according to a security source.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom on Wednesday called for a boycott of the Republic Day celebrations. In a joint statement issued here, the ULFA along with three militant outfits of the region -- Kamatapur Liberation Organisation, Manipur People's Liberation Front and Tripura People's Democratic Front-- called for a boycott and general strike from 1 am to 6 pm on the day to protest against India's military repression.
Three militants belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom were killed and one militant was arrested in two separate incidents of gun-battle, between the militants and joint teams of the Army and police, near the Assam-Arunachal border on Saturday.Security sources informed that two ULFA militants were killed in an encounter with security forces at Khamongaon under Kakotibari police station in Charaideo sub-division of Sivasagar district.
ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa has indicated that the banned militant outfit is ready for peace talks.
Making the split in the proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom official, the pro-talks faction of the outfit has given up the demand for sovereignty and announced its readiness to hold talks with the central government within the framework of the Constitution. The faction said it favours autonomy over sovereignty.
The proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam has acquired a new generation of Improvised Explosive Devices, the Army has recovered an IED equipped with double-detonators from a bus at Bilasipara in Goalpara district in Western Assam.
United Liberation Front of Asom chief Golap Barua alias Anup Chetia has moved the United Nations for refugee status and political asylum in a safe country in the event of his release from a Bangladesh jail. The Indian government wants his to be extradited.
India has asked Bangladesh to expedite the extradition of top United Liberation Front of Asom insurgent Anup Chetia who has served out his sentence in this country after being arrested on the charge of entering without valid documents in 1997.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (independent), has fired a broadside at Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for Assam government's decision to present coveted Srimanta Sankardeva Award to yesteryear's celebrated actress of Hindi cinema, Sharmila Tagore.
The next round of dialogue between the officials of the Indian government and the United Liberation Front of Assam faction led by its 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa will be held in New Delhi on April 9 before Rangali Bihu, according to sources.
The general secretary and a founder leader of the United Liberation Front of Assam, Anup Chetia alias Golap Barua who is now lodged in a Bangladesh jail because of his pending application for political asylum, now wants to come back to his birth place Assam where he wants to live for the rest of life.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam, led by Arabinda Rajkhowa, has set the tone for dialogue to resolve the over 31-year-old vexed insurgency problem in the state by dropping its main demand for 'sovereignty'.
Top United Liberation Front of Asom leaders on Friday met Home Minister P Chidambaram and presented the outfit's 'charter of demands', setting the ball rolling for peace talks with the government to bring about a lasting solution to Assam's three-decade old insurgency problem.
After scaling down its original demand for 'sovereignty', the militant United Liberation Front of Asom wants Assam to be declared a 'tribal state' by granting the Scheduled Tribe status to at least six more ethnic communities.
Paresh Baruah, the military chief of the banned outfit United Liberation Front of Asom, seems to be enjoying China's hospitality as his presence in the neighbouring country has been confirmed by the arrested head of a Manipuri militant group. United National Liberation Front chief R K Sanayaima alias Meghen, arrested in December in Bihar by the National Investigation Agency, confessed during interrogation that he had met the elusive 'commander-in-chief' of ULFA.
Centre's interlocutor for peace talks with northeast militants P C Haldar on Thursday said he was "optimistic about taking the peace talks with the United Liberation Front of Asom forward as they have expressed their willingness for unconditional talks."