Not one but two a Class-X girl moved to the ULFA, triggering panic in rural Assam as frustrated youths are increasingly trying to find solace in ULFA, which had reached stages of irrelevancy till a few months back.
As per reports, Karishma Mech and Chandra Buragohain, both from Lekhapani area in Tinsukia district, are suspected of joining the Paresh Baruah-led rebel group. Mech, a Class X student, had reportedly gone missing from the area a week ago.
Reports of the two students joining the banned militant outfit have come just a few weeks after Pankaj Pratim Dutta, the vice-president of the Dergaon regional committee of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), took to social media to announce his decision to join ULFA(I).
She has been missing over a week and the police have suspected that she might have joined the ULFA cadre.
The ULFA is slowly rising from the ashes like a phoenix and hapless ordinary Assamsese people are looking it up as a hope since all democratic process to stop the Citizenship Amendment bill(CAB) have failed and opposing forces at the ground level are not trusted by people of Assam.
In fact this has been corroborated by none of other than IGP(SB) Pallab Bhattacharrya, the No.2 of the Assam police candidly before media.
He said Sunday that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill — proposed by the Union government — has given "a fresh lease of life" to the activities of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Independent), the militant outfit suspected by police to be behind the killing of five farmers in Tinsukia district recently.
Special DGP (Special Branch) of the Assam Police Pallab Bhattacharyya, told Indian Express that the proposed Bill has led to a new rift between the state's Assamese- and Bengali-speaking communities, in turn fomenting trouble. The top officer also added that the recent publication of unverified news reports regarding the death of the chief of the ULFA(I), Paresh Barua, could add to the tension.
"The faultline between Assamese- and Bengali-speakers in the state is a historical one and the proposed Bill has added fuel to it. There was trouble during the language movement of the 1960s and then were was some trouble initially during the Assam movement. But then it had subsided. Now again it has come up," the officer said.
At the same time, Bhattacharyya denied media reports of "large scale recruitment by the ULFA(I)". "Since September 1, eight persons have joined the ULFA(I) in Udalguri and Tinsukia districts. Some others have been apprehended. This is the figure we have now," he said.
Meanwhile mother of three in Udalguri district, Sakhwar, Dahnjit and Jagat who had crossed over to ULFA at the end of September month through Dimalour, had requested ULFA Commander in Chief Paresh Barua to send their wards back.
With the BJP squeezing the democratic soace and youth ralisng the impotence of the political system in opposing the anti people laws, the ULFA have become more and more relevant.
