An assembly line of youth has joined the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom since 1979 knowing they could die in encounters with security forces or fall to the elements in the jungles. The confessions of an arrested member have reaffirmed that leaving the outfit is riskier.
Officials of a central intelligence agency said Mridul Mahanta, whom the security forces had caught from adjoining Arunachal Pradesh last week, was lucky to have escaped execution by the ULFA (Independent) unlike three other members of the group.
ULFA(I) is the reportedly depleted anti-talks group headed by the outfit’s military commander Paresh Baruah. Most of the members of the outfit are on talks mode.
Mr. Mahanta told his interrogators that a commander named Golap Sonowal of the group shot three of his comrades-in-arms – Lalit Asom, Ashwini Asom, and Rubul Moran – less than a month ago when they tried to flee from the ULFA(I)’s camp at Taga in Myanmar. He trekked through dense mountainous forest and entered Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district after giving his pursuers the slip.
On April 27, Mr. Baruah purportedly called up some TV channels and justified the killings. “They were trying to flee with weapons, a crime worthy of capital punishment according to our constitution. The execution was carried out after our court found them guilty,” he said.
Mr. Baruah is believed to be in the Ruili area on the Myanmar-China border.
Shattered dreams
Many who joined the ULFA(I) to “liberate” Assam have found their dreams shattered. In March, seven members of the outfit surrendered to the police in Tinsukia district after fleeing an assault by the Myanmar army.
In January-February, the Myanmar army had taken over camps of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) and other extremist groups such as the ULFA(I) that it had been sheltering. Some members of these groups were killed during the attack.
“They realised the futility of having joined the ULFA(I) after facing hardships in the camps besides risking their lives against the security forces. They were also being paid meagre sums for their service while their leaders were living luxuriously in safe places,” a police officer in eastern Assam said.
“Executing a member who wants to quit after branding him an informer has been the norm for the outfit,” said former Assam Police chief G.M. Srivastava.
In December 2013, the ULFA had shot 10 members in the head after trying to escape. A month later, the outfit executed its top commander Partha Gogoi in Nagaland’s Mon district bordering Myanmar. A statement issued by the ULFA later said he was shot for “conspiring with security forces to engineer mass surrender of cadres”.
‘Tricked into joining’
Intelligence officials had then said some of the Assamese youth who deserted the outfit said they had been tricked into joining it. “The outfit’s scouts promised them jobs in Mumbai and Bengaluru but took them to their bases in Myanmar,” an official said.
Hemkanta Changmai, one of the deserters, said the new recruits would often be whipped and caned in the camps and forced to do menial jobs.
He also said a few of them were hiding in the jungles after fleeing the Myanmar camp for fear of being hounded out.
“It is tougher to get out of the sangathan (group, as ULFA is often referred to) than joining it. I quit in the 1980s after a tiff with the leaders. There were a few attempts on my life,” said Jiten Gogoi, a former MLA who contested the Kaliabor Lok Sabha seat as an Independent this time.
