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Journalism of Courage
GUWAHATI, DECEMBER 22: Even as the number of violent incidents as well as killings by militants have come down almost by half during the current year, the Assam authorities are finding it a difficult task tackling militancy in view of “inadequate” legal provisions.
Disclosing this, Assam Police Special Branch chief N Ramchandran said that while a large number of militant youths are arrested every year, they cannot be kept in jail for long due to the inadequate laws.
“We had a lot of incontrovertible documents against ULFA cultural wing secretary Pranati Deka (arrested in 1997 in Mumbai), yet she got released due to loopholes in the law,” Ramchandran, citing an example, said.The police and security forces had since 1997 apprehended more than 4300 members of the ULFA, NDFB and Bodo Liberation Tigers, but nearly all of them were released, Ramchandran informed.
It may be recalled that the laws applicable for militants were still the same as those applied in case of ordinary crimes, and with the end ofTADA, the police can hardly keep any rebel for a period of 90 days.
A large number of youths detained under the National Security Act too were set free for simple reason that there is no provision to detain them further, the Special Branch Inspector-General added.
Giving figures for the past three years, he said that whilethe three armed underground groups were involved in 415 incidents in 1997, the figure rose to 716 in 1998, only to come down to 353 in the first eleven months of 1999.
Similarly, the number of persons killed by the militants has also come down. In 1997, for instance, the three groups together killed 337 persons (including 90 security personnel). This figure did rise to 544 in 1998 (including 90 securitymen), but has come down to 202 in the first eleven months of 1999 (this includes 59 security personnel).
SAFE PASSAGE: Giving details about the response to the eleven-day millennium-offer announced by the State Government, Ramchandran said that till Tuesday altogether 173 members ofULFA, NDFB and BLT have approached the police and army authorities expressing their desire to visit their parents.
“The number is likely to go up in the next few days,” he said, adding that the top leadership of the groups were opposed to their cadres taking the offer.
Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has claimed that the top ULFA leaders have been preventing the `boys’ from availing the offer, fearing that it might cause further erosion in the ULFA ranks. The safe passage offer, made by governor SK Sinha on October 30, and formalised by Mahanta on November four.
