DOOMDOOMA, Jan 12 — The troops of 2 Mountain Division responsible for conduct of counter-insurgency operations in upper Assam and some parts of lower Assam have been able to contain militancy to a large extent especially after elimination of some key personalities like self-styled ‘major’ Tapan Sarma, ‘commanding officer’, 28 battalion in May, 2002 and self-styled Lt Rakta Plaban, Ajay Rajkhowa and Biren Deori. It was followed by seizure of a large cache of arms and ammunition during the month of August and September last year.
“The effects are very visible in that militancy is at extremely low ebb,” claimed Major-General HS Batra, white addressing the scribes of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts at Dinjan, the Headquarter of 2 Mountain Division, recently. “The situation is a cause for optimism and provides the opportunity for resolution of the problem,” he asserted.
Major-General Batra also revealed what they had gathered after interaction with surrendered ULFA cadres over a period of time. “Most of these youths are those who have gone astray due to the combined effects of lack of employment opportunities on one hand and the lure of the gun on the other,” he said. He also narrated special efforts taken for recruiting the youths into Army and other measures taken to provide civic amenities and facilities from the resources of the Army under its welfare project ‘Operation Samaritan’.
The Deputy Commissioner, Dibrugarh, Niraj Sharma, additional deputy commissioner, Tinsukia, RM Roy, Additional Superintendent of Police, Tinsukia (headquarter), Mugdhajyoti Mahanta, Brigadier AK Gulati, commander, 181 Mountain Brigade and a host of other top Army officers were present on the occasion.
An exhibition of large cache of arms and ammunition which included eight universal machine guns (UMGs) and 42 AK-56 rifles and large quantity of small arms and ammunition was presented. Most of these weapons had been stacked in underground caches and were preserved in poly packs in oil contained in syntax tanks. To a query of this correspondent, Major-General Batra said that except few fake currency notes the Army has not been able to unearth the huge money collected by ULFA in its extortion spree in the upper Assam districts during the last few years.
The Major-General also declined to comment when asked whether the Army had any specific information about ULFA having any links with any political parties of Assam in that it becomes an issue just before an election of charging one another with allegations and counter allegations!