GUWAHATI, June 29 – Security measures in the Upper Assam districts have been intensified following a series of attacks by the ULFA in the districts of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Sivasagar. The outfit has been active in the area for the past one year or so and their activities came to the limelight only after the recent blasts. Highly placed police sources told The Assam Tribune that the outfit had been building up its bases in the upper Assam districts for more than a year now and its support base has also widened to a large extent. Sources pointed out that the operations in Bhutan did not affect the 28 Battalion of the ULFA based in Myanmar from where the outfit launches most of its operations. The open border with Myanmar and the terrain in the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh and Assam-Nagaland border areas also helped the militants to sneak into Assam to launch operations from its Myanmar base. Though security measures along the bordering areas have been intensified to restrict movement of the militants, it is impossible to completely seal the inter-state borders due to the terrain, sources admitted.
Police sources pointed out that the ULFA remained active in the upper Assam districts and in 2003, more than 40 major acts of violence involving the ULFA were reported in Tinsukia district alone, which included a series of attacks on Hindi speaking people, attacks on an oil collection station, on the quarters of the Hindustan Lever Limited, ambush of Army parties, blasts on oil pipelines, kidnapping of tea garden owners and businessmen etc. These incidents proved that the outfit was active in the area last year also but the activities came to limelight only because of the recent bomb blasts.
Sources said that operations against the militants have been intensified in the upper Assam districts following the recent attacks and these have also started yielding results. Sources revealed that efforts are also on to improve the police-public relations to bring the common masses closer to the law enforcing agencies. Sources pointed out that the success of the law enforcing agencies depend largely on the cooperation of the general public and the new efforts to improve relations started showing results as recently the villagers informed the police immediately after an eight-member group of the ULFA entered a remote village in Sivasagar district.
It may be mentioned here that the Government of India has been requesting the Myanmar Government to take action to evict the militants taking shelter in that country but so far the Myanmar Army has not been able to launch a sustained operation. The Government of India also decided to entrust the job of guarding the Indo-Myanmar border to the Assam Rifles to restrict the movement of the ultras from the neighbouring country but it would take some time for the force to be fully deployed in the border. Under the circumstances, it would be difficult for the security agencies to completely check the activities of the militants in the upper Assam districts till the Myanmar Government takes action to evict the militants from its territory.