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In a major breakthrough, the Assam Police on late Monday night arrested 10 cadres of the United People’s Liberation Army (UPLA), a newly formed militant group that had killed Hamren SP N N Goswami and his PSO in Karbi Anglong last Thursday. Those arrested included the self-styled commander-in-chief and deputy C-in-C of the outfit.
Additional Director-General A P Rout said while police were on the look-out for the militants responsible for the SP’s killing, they zeroed in on a hideout close to the inter-state border between Bokajan in Assam and Dimapur in Nagaland, and apprehended 10 people. Those arrested included UPLA C-in-C Nikunja Kathar, deputy C-in-C Longnin Teron and foreign secretary Bali Rongfar. While most of them had gathered from different places, Teron had come from a locality called Burma Camp in Dimapur. The group was most likely planning to sneak out into Nagaland to evade the Assam Police operations.
The Assam Police received back-up support from Nagaland Police; they recovered two AK-47 rifles, one Universal Machine Gun, one 3-inch mortar, 11 high-explosive grenades, and 800 rounds of ammunition. “The arms and ammunition were recovered after the police party raided Kathar’s house near Baithalangsu early on Tuesday,” Rout said.
Rout said that the militants had gone in different directions and taken different routes after killing the SP to reach their hideout. “While one of came via Shillong to Guwahati to catch a train to Dimapur, some trekked through jungles to reach the National Highway near Nellie, from where they went to Jagiroad to catch a train to Dimapur.
The UPLA was almost invisible on Assam Police radar despite being active for the past three-four months. In fact, when Forest minister Rakibul Hussain on December 16 last year gave a list of six new militant outfits that had emerged in the past two years, there was no mention of the UPLA. Instead, there was one UPLF, and police are not sure whether it is just another name for UPLA. Police had, immediately after the SP’s killing, pointed finger at Karbi National Liberation Front and the UPLF.
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