The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom, preparing for unconditional dialogue with the Government of India, has said that its leaders and cadres involved in the current peace process with the government will have 'zero involvement' in the forthcoming assembly elections in Assam.
With several key members of ULFA surrendering, the outfit's leader Paresh Barua who has been anti-talks, has been left isolated
ULFA's self-styled commander-in-chief, Paresh Baruah, in a statement warned that the outfit is planning retaliation for the attack.
The banned United Liberation Front of Asom has criticised the GOC 4 Corps of the Indian Army B S Jaswal, the head of the counter-insurgency operations in Assam, for issuing a 'threatening' statement aimed at families of ULFA militants.
An United Liberation Front of Asom militant was beaten to death and two others were critically injured by a mob on Monday when the trio had allegedly come to extort money from an official of the district Agriculture Marketing Board in Assam.
Meanwhile, a joint team of police and the Army yesterday arrested two ULFA militants at Sitara along India-Bhutan road in Rangiya under Kamrup district.
The killed teacher hails from Nagaon Tinali under Pengeri police station. He is survived by young wife and a five-year-old daugher.
In stepped up violence by the proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom in Assam, one person was killed and several injured, some seriously, in separate incidents of bomb blasts and a grenade attack on Tuesday, police said.
The United Liberation Front of Asom is trying to re-group, after it suffered a setback recently when a faction of the banned extremist outfit broke away to participate in peace talks with the Centre.Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has stated that though the law and order situation in the state is currently under control, the government has information about the anti-talks faction of the banned ULFA, led by commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, trying to regroup.
Panic prevailed and shopkeepers downed their shutters, but security measures have been tightened since then.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
The ULFA had warned of attacks on Congressmen in the run-up to the forthcoming panchayat body elections in the state. The police, however, haven't ruled out the possibility of suicide, as the Congress leader was not given a party ticket to contest the polls this time.
The proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom has been triggering blasts in Assam with uniform regularity setting off seven explosive devices, including five in Guwahati this month, killing nine persons and injuring 100 others.
A civilian was killed in the crossfire between the police and two militants of the United Liberation Front of Asom at Sualkuchi in Kamrup district of Assam.The slain civilian was identified as Maniram Rabha, a rickshaw puller. One of the two militants who were engaged in the gunfight was apprehended. According to the police, the militants were extorting money from a business establishment in the town when they were accosted.
Earlier in the day, suspected ULFA militants detonated a blast under an Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited pipeline carrying crude oil at Lakwa in Sivasagar district of Upper Assam.
Police informed that acting on a tip-off that a group of ULFA militants were hiding in a makeshift camp on the hillock near the outskirts of the city, a police team set out to raid the hideout.
Two persons were killed and 13 others injured when an improvised explosive device planted by the banned United Liberation Front of Asom went off in the Upper Assam business hub of Tinsukia town at around 6.20 pm on Saturday.
The Army on Monday gunned down two members of the banned United Liberation Front of Assom in an encounter inside the Ranglu Forest area in Arunachal Pradesh. Troops of the 11 Sikh Light Regiment gunned down senior ULFA cadres Nitul Sonowal and Muleswar Sonowal after a fierce gun battle, said sources. In a separate incident, 11 people were injured in a bomb blast at a fair in Dhansirimukh in Udalguri district of north Assam on Monday afternoon.
Three hundred and five members of the United Liberation Front of Barak Valley led by its president Pancharam Apeto gave up arms before Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi in Guwahati on Monday.
Hospitals are working in full force with doctors desperately trying to revive the critically injured, giving oxygen to some and saline and first aid to others.
Of the 42 injured, the condition of 32 was described as serious. Of the four wounded children, a 10-year-old was in a serious condition.
Four persons were killed and 32 others injured when militants belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom detonated three powerful explosions in Tinsukia district of eastern Assam.
Sensing the frustration gripping a section of members of People's Consultative Group (PCG) over the stalled peace process between the banned United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and the Centre, ULFA chairman Arabina Rajkhowa said that the outfit wouldn't object to any of the PCG members leaving the group according to their wish.
Police suspected that the militants were carrying the trans-shipment to carry out strikes in Guwahati.
Suspected militants belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom shot dead three Hindi-speaking workers at a brick kiln in Dibrugarh district of eastern Assam late on Sunday night.
The recovery was made after the arrest of Champak Sharma, an ULFA cadre. Immediately after the arrest, the police recovered five kilograms of RDX explosives, a large number of splinters, bomb sealing materials and ammunition of SLR from a rented house near the Army transit camp.
Taking a step forward to hold a dialogue with the Government of India, the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa has sent a letter to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi expressing his outfit's desire to hold unconditional peace talks.
Official sources in Guwahati informed that the Central team would be led by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar who would be accompanied by Union Special Secretary Home M L Kumawat and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday claimed that over 300-odd cadres, belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom and the anti-peace talks faction of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland, were hiding in Bangladesh. He claimed that at least ten top ranking leaders of the ULFA had taken refuge in the neighbouring country and were operating from there.'ULFA chief Paresh Barua and NDFB chief Ranjan Daimary keep shifting their locations,'Gogoi said
"We are sure this time that it is Ram as we had prior information on his whereabouts in that particular village for the last 24 hours. We are sure about the identity, but we want Ram's family members to confirm it," he said.
Two policemen were injured in a bomb blast, triggerred by the anti-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom, at Doomdooma township in Tinsukia district of Assam.
The blast triggered angry protests in the area and in nearby Fancy Bazar, the commercial hub of the N-E region.