Asom: After reverses, ULFA on human rights' trail

Guwahati, Apr 16: After facing a series of setbacks in the last few months, the outlawed ULFA now seems to intent on building human rights cases for salvation.

Army sources said at least 43 ULFA militants have been killed since a massive military attack began in Asom in September 2006, with the security forces choking their supplies and communication network.

Also, during the same period, 64 ULFA rebels were apprehended and 32 others surrendered, official sources said.

The ULFA is on the run with continuous pressure from the troops.

The ULFA is in total disarray now after Army disrupted their ommunication signals, a senior Army official said.

The buoyant Army insisted that the ULFA's strength was depleting since the counter-insurgency operations began after a six-week ceasefire was lifted in September last.

Significantly, this year the state government had not yet announced any unilateral ceasefire with the outfit, as it had been doing in the past during the Bihu festival.

Against the backdrop of these series of setbacks for the ULFA, a bench of the Gauhati High Court on April 13 directed the custody of a four-year-child to her mother, ULFA activist Madhuri Moran, who is lodged at Sivasagar jail.

The custody of Madhuri's two other daughters were given to their maternal uncle.

Wife of ULFA leader Jibon Moran, Madhuri, was arrested in Silchar last week under various sections of the IPC.

There is also an ongoing indefinite hunger strike by six 'missing' ULFA cadres' wives and an indefinite strike by nine activists of the People's Committee for Peace Initiative in Asom (PCPIA), a conglomerate of 27 pro-talks organisations, demanding the whereabouts of the ULFA cadres missing since the 'Operation All Clear' in Bhutan in December, 2003.

Doctors at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, where the striking women have been admitted, have refused to feed the women forcibly as they 'were aggressively determined not to take food'.

''Forcibly feeding can lead to serious medical complications,'' the doctors said.

The deteriorating condition of these fasting women had apparently put the state government in a dock, with various quarters turning the heat on it.

In another related hearing at the High Court, the Asom government on Thursday filed an affidavit in the court in a pending litigation pertaining to the whereabouts of missing ULFA and NDFB cadres.

Shymoli, wife of 'missing' ULFA cadre Prakash Gogoi, had filed a petition seeking the whereabouts of her husband, untraced since the Bhutan operations.

UNI