Migrant attacks: ULFA leader claims split

But what is more interesting is Neog’s claim that he was not in favour of carrying out the killings. “He has said there was a strong division of opinion within ULFA over launching an attack on Hindi-speaking people,” a police officer carrying out the interrogation said.

Interestingly, in January, when most of the migrant killings were carried out, a section of the local media carried a statement attributed to Neog in which he said he was not in favour of attacking Hindi-speaking people. However, another statement also attributed to him soon surfaced denying this.

Neog was on Wednesday remanded to 10-day police custody by a city court.

Several top leaders of ULFA are currently in Bangladesh, the most prominent among them being Paresh Barua, the self-styled commander-in-chief of ULFA’s armed wing. Though chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and general secretary Anup Chetia too are believed to be in Bangladesh, it is Barua who is said to calls the shots, including deciding about holding talks with New Delhi.

Seventy-one Hindi-speaking people were killed in the Upper Assam districts over a period of two weeks in January, ranging from petty traders and seasonal brick kiln labourers to domiciled farmers. Police suspected members of the 28th battalion headed by Neog to be behind the killings.

ULFA was also believed to be involved in the gunning down of 31 Hindi-speaking people in Karbi Anglong district last month, in collaboration with the Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF).

“He has confessed that top leaders currently hiding in Bangladesh had sent him instructions to carry out a series of attacks on Hindi-speaking people in the districts under his jurisdiction,” a senior police officer interrogating Neog said. The officer however refused to divulge what reasons Neog had given for the series of attacks.

Intelligence agencies are working on the theory that ULFA may be acting under pressure from the ISI of Pakistan and the Director General of Field Intelligence of Bangladesh, and that the idea may be to scare away Hindi-speaking labourers to make room for Bangladeshi migrants in Assam.

But police are taking Neog’s claims of a split in ULFA over migrant killings with a pinch of salt. “That ULFA is the most unreliable of all insurgent groups has been proved time and again,” noted the officer, though it remains a fact that for some time after the killings, Neog was sent off to look after ULFA camps in Myanmar across Tirap and Changlang in Arunachal Pradesh, and was subsequently assigned the task of reorganising the almost defunct 709 battalion of the outfit in central Assam.