Army nabs No 3 man of ULFA's main strike force

Guwahati, Jun 9 (UNI) The Army today arrested a top ULFA leader while he was on his way from Arunachal Pradesh's Itanagar to Tinsukia in Upper Asom.

Defence sources here said that based on specific intelligence inputs, troops of the 19 Kumaon Regiment apprehended self-styled 2nd Lieutenant Diwakar Moran alias Robin Baruah alias Dharmeshwar Deori, minutes after he left Itanagar for Tinsukia.

Diwakar is the seventh senior leader of the '28 battalion' of the ULFA to be arrested by the security forces.

A resident of Mamorani of Tinsukia, Diwakar joined the ULFA in 1989 and has operated in Upper Asom, Bangladesh, Mizoram, Myanmar and Bhutan.

Based in Nepal since 2006, he was the in charge of procurement, supply of arms and ammunition and foreign relations, the Army claimed.

Being number three in the hierarchy of the ULFA's main strike force, the '28th battalion', Diwakar Moran has been designated as the new company commander of 'A Company' of the 28th 'Battalion', Army sources said here.

The arrest of Nepal-based Diwakar comes a day after Nepal's Maoists denied having links with the ULFA.

Another Nepal-based ULFA top cadre, Ghanakanta Bora, who was arrested on June 4, admitted that the ULFA was in touch with Nepal's Maoists and procuring arms and ammunition from them.

Defence sources had said that Bora had revealed during interrogation that after the crackdown in Myanmar and Bhutan, LFA was eyeing Nepal as the next safest location.

Bora had also claimed that ULFA had even set some of its bases in Nepal.

However, Maoists leader Baburam Bhattarai, in a statement at Kathmandu yesterday, denied having any direct or indirect links with the ULFA.

Meanwhile, another ULFA leader of the outfit's '109 battalion' was apprehended by the Army this morning.

Army sources said Naren Rai was arrested near Boko at about 0830 hours.

UNI