As some people on either side of the fence try to bring ULFA to the negotiation table, the militant outfit gives the state's 'money plant' a slam-bang shake to collect more leaves
The banned militant outfit, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), has been facing a serious financial crisis. To overcome the money crunch, the outlawed organisation has intensified its extortion drive and has started serving demand notes to businessmen and government employees.
The ULFA pulled off some bank robberies during its initial stages. Now it is widely reported to be extorting ransom and protection money from businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians in order to fill its coffers. In 1997, the Assam chief minister had accused Tata Tea of paying the medical bills of ULFA cultural secretary Pranati Deka in Mumbai.
Early this month, the general manager of the Luit tea estate in Tinsukia district of Upper Assam received a demand note from the organisation. The manager ignored it. After a few days, some militants landed at the tea estate and attacked the general manager and burnt down vehicles. They left the garden after issuing a stern warning. A few days ago, security forces nabbed three ULFA activists who were allegedly running an extortion network from the Geetanagar area of Guwahati. During interrogation they revealed that they used to serve demand notices to people on behalf of the organisation. Kuldip Barman, president of Assam Yuva Parishad, was arrested by the police on July 2 from the city's Chandmari area for his alleged involvement in the extortion racket. Manik Baishya, an engineer with the state agriculture department, received an extortion letter signed by senior ULFA leader Hira Sarania demanding Rs 25 lakh from him. Though Baishya informed the police, he was also in touch with the ULFA for an adjustment. The extortionists finally agreed to accept Rs 5 lakh from Baishya. But he was later killed by his driver, Ganesh Bharali.
Jiten Dutta, leader of ULFA's 28th battalion that had come to the ceasefire talks in June 2008, says 'The cadres who are in militant camps are starpped for cash. The discussion process is very slow. The cadres are facing a paucity of essential commodities like food and cloth. So they are compelled to turn to extortion.'
'Members of ULFA used to live on donations collected from common people. They cannot run any legal business as they are involved in anti-government activities. They are bound to take donations from the people. When we were in the camp, we also used to collect money. Now our cadres are engaged in farming, fishing, poultry firming ,etc. We also get sufficient funds from the government to run designated camps,' says Dutta.
Public resentment against ULFA's activities is on the rise. Abhijit Sharma, chairman of Assam Public Works, says, 'Extortion, kidnap and murder are the main sources of income for ULFA. Paresh Baruah can do anything on the directions of the ISI.' Sharma says that they welcome the peace process but they are against the free movement of jailed ULFA leaders. 'Punish the guilty or remove the IPC from Assam. The jailed ULFA leaders had been involved in many heinous crimes. They should be punished for their misdeeds,' he adds. A senior police officer claims that the extortion demands of ULFA are decreasing by the day. Only seven cases of extortion have been recorded in the last nine months. Four of them are genuine extortion-related cases while three are fake. The Director General of Assam Police, Shankar Baruah, says 'We will become more active against ULFA and take strong steps against the banned outfit.'
Police officers name Ratul Baruah and Mantu Dihingia as being the ULFA extortionists who sneak in from Myanmar. They mainly handle Upper Assam. Lower Assam is looked after by Plavan Hazarika and Akash Thappa. ULFA is reported to be running several camps in Bangladesh, where members are trained and sheltered from Indian security forces. Until recently, they also had camps in Bhutan, which were destroyed by the Royal Bhutan Army aided by the Special Frontier Force in December 2003. There has been a crackdown on ULFA recently in Bangladesh as well, which has made the matters worse for the banned outfit.
ULFA has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1979. It had been lying low for the past two years with no major incidents of violence. Barring its commander in chief Paresh Barua, its entire top leadership is in jail. The imprisoned leaders include chairman Aravinda Rajkhowa, deputy commander in chief Raju Baruah, foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury, finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika, political adviser Bhimkanta Buragohain and cultural secretary Pranati Phukan.
Talks with the government have not been fruitful so far. ULFA is adamant on including sovereignty of Assam on the agenda of the talks though it has dropped its other preconditions of holding the talks in another country and under the supervision of the UN. The Indian government was not ready to negotiate on the issue of sovereignty. Still some progress was made when ULFA formed a 'People's Consultative Group' in September 2005 to prepare the ground for negotiations between the government and ULFA.
According to reports, peace talks were first held in December 2005 at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There were three rounds of talks with the 11-member People's Consultative Group (PCG) headed by Assamese writer Indira Goswami. It led to a truce in August 2006. However, it ended in September of the same year.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
An array of unconventional career options
IIPM BBA MBA Institute: Student Notice Board
Award Conferred To Irom Chanu Sharmila By IIPM
IIPM Lucknow – News article in Economic Times and Times of India
Prof Rajita Chaudhuri on 'THEY ARE COMING TO GET YOU – NOT ALIENS SILLY'
No comments:
Post a Comment