Army launches massive operation against ULFA ; PM to visit Asom

Guwahati/New Delhi, Jan 12 (UNI) Launching a massive operation to crackdown on the ULFA, the Army today pressed heavy choppers to ferry troops inside the jungle of Arunachal Pradesh, as the Centre decided to go all out against the militant outfit which has killed about 70 Hindi-speaking people in Asom.

Home Secretary V K Duggal, who chaired a high level meeting attended by Asom Chief Secretary P C Sharma and Director General of Police, said the situation is under control but nevertheless the army operation is on.

''Patrolling has been intensified and confidence building measures among all communities, both Assamese and non-Assamese, are being taken,'' he said.

Mr Duggal said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with Home Minister Shivraj Patil will visit the violence-affected region of Asom on January 16 and meet the kin of the victims of the serial attacks which took place between January 6 and 8.

ULFA peace process initiator Indira Goswami has once again launched a new effort to bring peace in Asom by roping in former Karnataka Chief Minister Veerappa Moily. She said she had convinced Mr Moily to impress upon the Prime Minister to issue a fresh appeal to ULFA for talks.

''I think that will help me to convince the ULFA to come to the negotiating table. He has just to send a fresh letter with no changes in his earlier stands,'' she said. She and Mr Moily have known each other for decades.

She hoped that the Prime Minister's stand of discussing the ''core issue'' should be sufficient to convince ULFA to agree to hold talks.

The ULFA has, however, been insisting that they would come to the negotiation table only on the stand of the ''sovereignty'' which Ms Goswami also ruled out.

''A Prime Minister cannot say that on record and in black and white'' she said.

Meanwhile, official sources said from Dinjan army base, the operation is in full swing and the troops have been air dropped inside the Arunachal jungle to intercept the fleeing ULFA cadres who are returning to their Myanmar base near the NSCN (K) camp.

The source, however, did not inform specifics of the operation because of strategic reason. Columns of soldiers moved in trucks and on foot to look for bases operated by the United Liberation Front of Asom in Assam State, said Major General N C Marwah, the army commander leading the operations.

In Meghalaya also, the army along with police have intensified their joint operation 'Rhino-2' against the ULFA in the state' s East and West Garo Hills districts bordering Asom. The Centre had directed the state government to allow the army to enter five kilometers inside the state to flush out cadres.

Security had been beefed up at the entry points between Asom and Meghalaya to detect ULFA cadres sneaking into the state following the ongoing massive combing operations in Asom.

Meghalaya Chief Minister J D Rymbai said his government is fully prepared to meet any eventuality to prevent the Asom-based ULFA ultras from sneaking into the state.

The Peoples Consultative Group (PCG) formed by the ULFA to carry out the peace process said the Centre and the State had ''over-reacted'' to the recent carnage. It said such massacre had taken place earlier also, but the Centre only reacted when the Hindi-speaking people were killed.

The PCG has temporarily withdrawn itself from the peace process but they will sit tonight for a fresh round of negotiations, he said.

UNI