Suspected anti-talk faction of ULFA targets Congress leader

Dibrugarh/ Tinsukia, Feb 22 (PTI) Suspected anti-talkfaction militants of ULFA stormed into the house of a seniorCongress leader in Tinsukia district last night close on theheels of a recent threat to the ruling party.

Three armed ULFA insurgents came in two motorcycles andstormed into the house of Tengapani panchayat president BholaShah at Gorbasti Bazar at around 7.30 pm, police said today.

Shah''s son Jyoti Prakash Shah had a scuffle with theultras when they tried to kidnap him as his father was away,the police said.

Claiming to be ULFA militants, the attackers shot fromtheir weapons but none was injured, the police said.

The militants then fled away in one of their motorcyclesleaving behind the other vehicle.

A massive search operation along with the Army waslaunched to track the attackers, the police said.

In the run-up to the upcoming assembly elections in thestate, the Paresh Baruah faction of ULFA on Friday last hadthreatened to target the Congress by launching an armedstruggle'' and warned the people against attending meetingsorganised by the party leaders, ministers and legislators.

The ULFA accused the Congress of being responsible fordividing the outfit by luring away some of its leaders intositting for peace talks with the government.

Paresh Baruah has termed the peace talks as�unconstitutional� as ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa andseven other top leaders were surrounded by �Indian forces�suggesting the talks were being held under pressure from thegovernment.

This was discounted by the pro-talk ULFA leadership withRajkhowa asserting that the decision to hold the discussionswith the government was sanctioned and approved by the ULFAgeneral council.