Guwahati/Nagaon, June 4: Pressure is mounting on the Assam government to secure the release of minister G.C. Langthasa’s youngest son Nirmalendu from Ulfa captivity before the impasse causes an ethnic divide. In a memorandum to chief minister Tarun Gogoi, the apex community organisation of the Dimasas said the relationship between the people of the hills and the plains was as much at stake as Nirmalendu’s safety.
“The community desires that Nirmalendu should come back safe, unharmed and immediately. It is only recently that N.C. Hills returned to normality from months of ethnic violence, and any mishandling of the situation might invite an unwarranted situation,” the Jadikhe Naisho Hoshom said. Over 10,000 people from different communities today joined a procession in Haflong town to protest the abduction.
In adjacent Karbi Anglong, the army arrested a top Ulfa leader who is suspected of having played a role in Nirmalendu’s abduction. The militant, Rajen Gohain, is the “second in command” of the Ulfa’s Nagaon district unit. He was found in a house in the heart of Diphu town around 6.30 and handed over to the police.
Langthasa, who is a Dimasa leader, lost another of his five sons, Narmendu, in a Hmar militant attack on May 12 last year. The eldest, Purnendu, is the chief executive member of the North Cachar Autonomous District Council.
The Jadikhe Naisho Hoshom said the Dimasa tribe had always felt alienated from the mainstream, being trapped between the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys. “Now, with the Ulfa kidnapping Nirmalendu, we, as a community, have been hurt deeply and felt betrayed,” it said.
The militant Dima Halam Daoga offered to mediate between the government and the Ulfa to expedite the process of bringing back Nirmalendu safely.
The Ulfa wants to exchange Nirmalendu for the release of its leaders who were either captured or forced to surrender during Bhutan’s operation against militant groups of the Northeast. Nirmalendu was taken hostage on April 27.