Anti-ULFA Ops likely to change
Source: The Sangai Express / Agencies
Guwahati, July 31 2013:
The unified command in the state will review the nature of its ongoing operations against Ulfa-I, the anti-talks faction of the rebel outfit led by Paresh Baruah, after Anup Chetia's repatriation to India from Bangladesh.
On the other hand, Assam Police stepped up pressure on Baruah's last surviving field commander, Drishti Rajkhowa, to join the Arabinda Rajkhowa-led pro-talks faction.
The Assam Police DGP on Monday said that Drishti Rajkhowa ordered the grenade blast that injured 15 persons in the city on Sunday.
"Our counter-insurgency operation will continue on existing lines for now but we may have to change them after Anup Chetia is brought here.
He is the key leader of the outfit and his statements will be crucial for us.
We will interrogate him after he comes and whatever information he gives us will be matched with the information we have and, then, we may have to change the line of the operation," a security source said.
Chetia, who is the founder general secretary of the outfit and currently in protective custody in a Bangladesh jail, recently gave up his appeal in a Bangladesh high court seeking political asylum and wants to return home.
Chetia was the mastermind behind making Ulfa a powerful militant outfit, and both Baruah and Rajkhowa want him on their side.
The Centre also wants Chetia to join the peace talks.
The source said, "Pinning the blame for the blast on Drishti is part of the strategy to mount pressure on him to switch sides.
There were inputs about Drishti's presence in Mehndipathar in Garo Hills a few weeks ago, but he was untraceable there.
Assam Police have been making a huge effort to break Drishti and lure him to the pro-talks faction" .
Drishti Rajkjhowa, whose actual name is Monoj Rabha, is from the Rabha community in Goalpara district.
He is very popular among the Rabha people and is the last armed wing 'commander' of the outfit, and has survived waves of surrenders and counter-insurgency operations.
Known to be a master disguiser, Drishti shuttles between Bangladesh and the neighbouring Garo Hills in Meghalaya that border the state in the southwestern region.
He is so elusive that security and intelligence agencies do not even have any recent photograph of him.
"If Drishti can be coerced to leave anti-talks faction, it will be the biggest blow to Paresh Baruah and it will weaken him like never before," the source said.