Jain panel report bares close LTTE-ULFA nexus

“Threat posed by the ULFA took a serious turn in 1990 when intelligence reports indicated, for the first time, that Rajiv Gandhi had been included in ULFA’s hit list,” the report says. The report explains that following Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to Assam in June 1990, ULFA contemplated a conspiracy to engineer another visit of the former prime minister by influencing some State Congress leaders. “ULFA claimed that they had unhindered access inside the Guwahati hotel, Rituraj, where Rajiv Gandhi had stayed during his June trip,” the report says.

According to an intelligence report quoted in the report, “A Tamil Nadu cell of the ULFA was set up in February 1990 by a top ULFA activist. The purpose was to develop a network and open a line to the LTTE. ”

According to the Jain Commission report, three central committee members of the ULFA visited Madras in the first week of August 1990 to meet top LTTE leaders and gain expertise in handling explosives. Almost immediately after, the report reveals, a top LTTE member visited ULFA headquarters in Assam and was, in fact, even taken to ULFA’s Central headquarters where he held detailed discussions with Paresh Baruah, ULFA’s commander-in-chief.