Opinion - Editorials

The ULFA mortar attacks

IN RECENT MONTHS, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has taken to launching a series of mortar strikes in Assam, particularly in and around the capital. The State police have achieved an important breakthrough in these attack cases with the surrender of a frail 20-year-old woman, Dwipamani Kalita. This unlikely looking executor of terrorist strikes was directly responsible for two mortar attacks in Guwahati, one on the Dispur capital complex last October and another in the busy Ambari commercial area in December. Three persons died in the latter attack in which five mortars were fired in quick succession while the single explosive that landed in the daring Dispur complex attack only succeeded in damaging a few vehicles. With Dwipamani's surrender and the killing of another militant in an encounter in the Garo Hills, the police believe they have all but smashed a three-member group that was specially trained and commissioned to carry out mortar attacks. Her surrender and confession have revealed that the series of mortar attacks since last October was scripted in Bangladesh by ULFA's commander-in-chief, Paresh Barua, his deputy, Rajesh Barua, and a few of their close associates. Moreover, that this was a meticulously planned operation. Weapons experts systematically trained the three-member team selected to execute it.

The real ingenuity in this grisly terrorist plot is the emphasis on stealth and secrecy, with the gang members living in anonymity and often operating single-handedly. But the authorities, both at the State and the Central levels, are bound to be extremely concerned that such a meticulous operation (which involved foreign weapons experts and four months of mortar training in an area not far from Dhaka) could have taken place in Bangladesh. It is an open secret that ULFA and various other northeastern terrorist groups have operating bases in Bangladeshi territory, which they use for their subversive activities against India. The previous Awami League Government had initiated some steps against permitting such groups from doing so. For instance, there were attempts to crack down on the activities of the ULFA chief and, a couple of years ago, Anup Chetia, a former ULFA general secretary, was sentenced to three years imprisonment for illegal possession of foreign currency. Going by recent indications, fears that the emergence of the BNP Government would embolden Indian terrorist groups to regroup in Bangladeshi territory have not been unfounded. There is also evidence that some groups such as the ULFA had started the process of relocation from Bhutan to Bangladesh ever since the Bhutanese Government started turning the heat on them a couple of years ago.

This process, if anything, seems to have been stepped up with the ultimatum issued by the Bhutanese Government last month. The Government has asked all Indian separatist groups to vacate its territory by June or face the prospect of being removed by military action. This ultimatum was served mainly with the ULFA and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in mind, the two main groups that have bases in southern Bhutan. Such ultimatums have been issued by Bhutan before, but the recent one, which followed strong pressure from India, was accompanied by reports that the two countries had carried out several joint operations to dismantle rebel camps along the border. Thimpu's cooperation in eliminating all local support to Indian terrorist groups has apparently led outfits such as the ULFA to pull out of the kingdom and move via Meghalaya into Bangladesh. This view gained credence when security forces recently found two large hauls of explosives in the West Garo Hills area — including rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles and huge quantities of explosives — just kilometres away from the India-Bangladesh border. There are a complex set of political and social causes for terrorism in the Northeast but, as the story that has emerged following Dwipamani's surrender suggests, tackling the phenomenon is complicated by the ULFA's use of foreign territory for planning and coordinating its violent activities.

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