Guwahati , April 25: Elusive Ulfa chief Paresh Baruah appears to have shifted his base back to Bangladesh with the help of a section of officials of the directorate-general of field investigation in Dhaka.
Security sources, saying that the Union home ministry had received inputs to this effect from its intelligence agencies a few days back, said the Bangladesh government was reluctant to hand over other Ulfa rebel leaders like Antu Chawdang and Drishti Rajkhowa, as well as NDFB chief Ranjan Daimary, who are running their terror networks in Assam from Bangladesh.
The sources claimed that Ulfa was trying to regroup, and if the intelligence reports were any indicator, the Ulfa chief was looking for a way to revive the organisation. “The Ulfa chief is also not upset over the eviction and handing over of Ulfa leaders, including chairman Arbinda Rajkhowa, to the security forces in India as they were marginalised within the organisation prior to their deportation from Bangladesh,” a source added.
Officials of Bangladesh’s DGFI are suspected to be helping the Ulfa chief in ensuring his safe movement from Burma to Bangladesh, the security sources said, adding that Baruah’s clout in Dhaka’s political circles was enabling him to carry out his activities smoothly in Bangladesh.
The sources claimed that the eviction of some Ulfa leaders by Bangladesh some months back was an “eyewash”, and that the authorities in Dhaka was reluctant to strike against the “real forces” of Ulfa and NDFB. “The operation was launched to ensure that militancy does not overshadow the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India,” a source said, nothing that Dhaka had either rejected or ignored a number of insurgency-related requests by the Indian government.
Referring to the convention of prominent citizens of Assam which demanded the release of jailed Ulfa leaders to facilitate the peace talks, the security sources noted that the home ministry had already made it clear that the Ulfa leaders could be released only through the judicial process. “They can be released without any judicial trial only if the government decides to grant them an amnesty, which looks remote,” a source said.
He added that a decision was up to the Assam government. “If the state wishes to release them, the jailed Ulfa leaders will have to move court for bail,” the source added. He clarified that the Union home ministry’s stand on sovereignty was unchanged: that there will be no talks on the question of sovereignty with any rebel group.
Manoj Anand