GUWAHATI: The Paresh Baruah-led United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) has said that the “ceremonial” surrender of six of its members on Thursday was stage-managed by the Assam police.
The six extremists surrendered before the police in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district with a large quantity of arms and ammunition including an AK-56 rifle, an MQ-81 assault rifle and an HK-33 rifle.
“The six men had been in the custody of the police for almost eight months. The police used them to terrorise and extort from indigenous people of Tinsukia district as well as Namsai, Lohit, Dibang and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh in order to give our organisation a bad name and undermine our struggle for a sovereign Assam,” ULFA-I spokesperson Rumel Asom said in a statement on Friday.
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The police rubbished the accusation and said the outfit has been trying to recover from the impact of demonetisation and was carrying out extortion activities in eastern Assam for sustenance.
The ULFA-I has also been abducting a few people for ransom. The last person it abducted was Dinanath Upadhyay, a supervisor of a tea estate in Tinsukia district.
The outfit has demanded ₹3 crore for his release.
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The ULFA-I had last week opened a Facebook account that the US-based social media operator blocked following a request from the Assam police. The outfit opened another account hours later.
The ULFA was founded on April 7, 1979 to fight for an independent Assam. Its members underwent training in the camps of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang in Myanmar to launch its armed struggle in 1990.
Military operations and crackdown by the government on sympathisers and members of the rebels’ families broke the backbone of the outlawed outfit by 2005. The group received a setback when its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and other top leaders were arrested in 2009 while others surrendered.
The outfit soon split into the pro-talks and the smaller anti-talks factions. Mr. Baruah, the leader of the anti-talks faction, renamed the group ULFA-Independent in April 2013.