NE outfits plan major violence

AGARTALA, Jan 5— One hardcore ULFA militant John Barua of Guwahati surrendered to the 13 BN Border Security Force in West Tripura on Tuesday, after crossing over to Sidhai, near Agartala from Bangladesh. BSF and other intelligence services interrogated him for the last two days and according to sources, the trained militant who fled from the joint camp of All Tripura Tiger Force and ULFA at Satcherri, Bangladesh, revealed highly sensitive information. He became disillusioned and left the camp, said officer in charge of Sidhai Police Station Samarendra Deb. Sources said, “ULFA and its allies among the underground outfits of the region are now hell bent to strike back in a big way and in a well-coordinated design throughout the region. There will be a tremendous escalation of violence if Barua’s version is to be believed.” Barua revealed that during last year ULFA had undertaken an extensive recruitment drive throughout Assam. The new cadres are now being imparted guerrilla warfare training jointly with other outfits of the region mainly ATTF in Bangladesh. He said, he was imparted training in August at Satcherri camp opposite Sidhai in West district with some other ATTF cadres. He crossed over to Tripura in an attempt to travel to Assam. The ATTF has all along been maintaining close relations with ULFA, NSCN (Khaplang) PLA of Manipur and Bodo militant organisations, while its arch rival National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) is active with NSCN (I-M). Sidhai Police Station OC Deb said, “No arms were recovered from Barua, But we disclosed some important information. The ULFA cadre speaks fluent Bengali and we expect more details.” The report of extensive guerrilla training jointly by NE militants has coincided with an intelligence report that in November last year some Bangladesh National Party leaders with a top ISI officer held a meeting somewhere in Chitagong Hill Tracts (CHT). There was also a report of a huge arms consignment reaching Cox’s Bazar port area in the last week of December. The arms which include A K series, explosives and some machine guns of various categories apart from small fire-arms and ammunition are meant for North-east militants. Sources also confirmed that a top ULFA leader and ATTF as well as NLFT (Biswamohan) chiefs were present at the meeting with the BNP leaders and ISI officer. It may be mentioned here that though ULFA militants are known to have been using Tripura as their route from Bangladesh hideouts in Sylhet areas, this is for the first time any ULFA cadre has surrendered here.