Assam militants spreading rumour, says Army

Guwahati, Jun 17: Militant groups operating in Assam, especially Lower Assam, have started a new tactic - spreading rumours about their 'achievements' - to boost the sagging morale of their cadres and, at the same time, to scare people, army said here today.

After getting decimated as a result of 'sustained' operations against the outfits, militant groups like NDFB (Songbijit), ULFA (Anti-Talk) and KLO have resorted to spreading rumours using the local media.

However, they did not realise that the local media is "highly patriotic and intelligent to fall to their bait", the release said.

Citing an example, it said, NDFB(S) called up a few journalists yesterday claiming to have killed armymen by ambushing a boat near Manas Area.

The real incident, the release said, was that Army troops on a search mission in boats in Manas area had found a militant camp near the bank of a water body and were moving towards it.

But the sentry of the camp spotted them and fired a shot to warn other militants. The armymen opened fire but militants managed to flee taking advantage of the difficult terrain and thick forest.

A loaded pistol, 5.56 mm magazine filled with ammunition, one grenade, about 500 kg of ration and tarpaulins were found in the camp.

"Busting of the militant camp very evidently discredits and contradicts the distorted claim made by the NDFB(S) solely for the purpose of false propaganda and gaining cheap publicity," it said.

This 'news' was reported on a few local TV channels due to lack of accurate information, the release said and urged the media to report incidents only verifying facts from the Army and other security forces.

PTI