ULFA tries establishing terror in Upper Assam

Guwahati, Sep 13: The faction-ridden ULFA in a bid to re-establish its authority, was regrouping and collecting arms and ammunition to create terror in Upper Assam, Army intelligence sources said.

This has come to light after seizure of huge ammunition including sophisticated AK-46 rifles from a Nagaland bound night service bus at Amtola gate on Assam-Nagaland border this morning.

The bus was heading for Mon, a large district of Nagaland, where NSCN(K) has stronghold and ULFA's anti-talk faction activists were regrouping there.

The consignment, seized in the bus, was meant for ULFA, sources added.

The ''B'' company of the 28th Battalion of the ULFA with around 60 militants moved into Mon when the Alpha and Charlie companies came forward for a negotiated settlement in June.

'' The Upper Assam has been peaceful since then but now the hardcore faction is trying to regroup and we could sense their movement'' the source said. He said it would be difficult for them (ULFA activists) to come down as their almost every safe hideouts were neutralized in Upper Assam.

The killing of Sashanka Barua yesterday at Margherita was also a death blow to the group as he was one of the seniormost ULFA leaders active in the region and was against the peace process. He had joined ULFA in 1985 and was released from jail in June last.

The ULFA alleged that he was killed by army in a fake encounter and blamed their former college Jiten Dutta and Prabal Neog.

In an e-mail statement last night, ULFA chairman Aurobindo Rajkhowa expelled him from the organisation.

UNI