DIBRUGARH, May 6 — Unidentified miscreants fired several gunshots at the wee hours today at the Jeraigaon residence of ULFA commander-in-chief, Paresh Baruah. According to Miliki Baruah, mother of Paresh Baruah, the family woke up at around 2 am this morning after they heard the shots. Paresh Baruah’s elder brother, Bimal, who is a civilian army employee with the Military Engineer Services at Chabua, lives with his mother in the village.
The police have begun investigating the case. In the last six years, miscreants fired at the house at least on three occasions. A younger brother of Paresh Baruah, Dinesh was shot dead in 1994 near the entrance to the house of the family by unidentified gunmen. That was the first incident in Assam when a kin of an active ULFA militant was slain. He was a railway employee at Tinsukia.
No bullet mark was seen at the house this morning. Apparently, the miscreants fired into the air to frighten the family. Of the five police guards posted at the house, two were on leave. The three who were on duty, shot back at the miscreants, who then fled away in two Maruti vans. The octogenarian Miliki Baruah has sought security, given the repeated nuisance by miscreants, on the household. Her neighbours said they heard the miscreants walking away after firing the shots, and that they were speaking to each other both in Hindi and Assamese.
Villagers at Jeraigaon said they saw some unfamiliar faces near the Baruah’s house on Monday afternoon, and that none of them appeared to be like natives. The police have taken this angle seriously and are taking steps to gear up policing in the village and its surroundings.