Talks with ULFA middle-rung leaders favoured

By Our Special Correspondent

GUWAHATI, APRIL 20. The strength of the ``military'' wing of the ULFA is believed to be not more than 4,000 cadre, about half of whom are armed.

According to Lt.-Gen. D. B. Shekatkar, GOC, 4 Corps, the weapons of the cadre include rifles of the AK series and rocket launchers. Most of them are living in camps in Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The ULFA runs three ``military academies'' in Bhutan. One is the ``Urban Insurgency Training Centre''; the second is the ``Jungle Warfare Training Centre'' and the third is the ``Guerilla Warfare Training Centre''.

His assessment is that the top leaders of the ULFA, who are abroad, are not interested in talks and there is no point in trying to talk to them. Instead, efforts should be made to win over the middle-rung leadership which is directing the operations. He believes they will be more amenable to talks.

The Army has learnt that recently there was an armed clash between the ULFA and the NDFB at Kaopuri, in the lower reaches of Bhutan.

The report, if true, is significant, in view of the fact that the NDFB has lately shown its willingness to enter into a ceasefire agreement with the Centre, like the BLTF, the other Bodo militant outfit. But the ULFA continues to be intransigent.

The NDFB has collected crores of rupees through extortion. From documents recovered from some slain NDFB militants, the Army came to know that for one top leader, the NDFB incurred expenses to the tune of $91,000 during 1998-99.

During the same period, the NDFB had collected about Rs. 13 crores from some lower Assam districts such as Kokrajhar, Dhubri and Barpeta.

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