Even as Assam Governor Lt Gen Ajai Singh described ULFA’s Rs 2-crore extortion demand on the firm Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) tea gardens as the handiwork of a ‘‘handful of miscreants’’, militants shot five petty traders in Doomdooma last night. The shooting also coincided with Defence Minister George Fernandes’ visit to the area.The five shop-owners were killed when militants, reportedly on bicycles, opened fire in front of a grocery shop at Dighalturrung, 25 km from Doomdooma — the head quarters of the HLL tea company. While three of them died on the spot, two succumbed to their injuries today.While Fernandes was in Dibrugarh to attend a 10-day NCC special national integration camp, Governor Singh put up on Friday night at the bungalow of a top HLL executive, raking up a controversy.HLL, which owns 14 tea estates in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh under two separate banners, had last week received an extortion note demanding Rs 2 crore, following which the government had stepped up security in the estates.The situation in the tea plantations in upper Assam had only recently subsided after about a month-long row over bonus. Five labourers had been killed when police opened fire in Khobang, a tea estate owned by the Apeejay Group 10 days ago.Singh, during his visit, had justified the police action in Khobang raking up a controversy, considering the fact that a magisterial inquiry instituted by the state government into the incident is yet to be completed. A delegation of officials from the HLL tea companies in Assam met Fernandes in Dibrugarh yesterday and apprised him of the situation arising out of the ULFA’s extortion notice.It may be recalled that it was a similar demand of Rs 2 crore from the ULFA in November 1990 that had created such a situation that while HLL airlifted its executives to Kolkata, the Centre had dismissed the then AGP government, imposed President’s Rule and had instructed the Army to flush out the militants. It was Lt Gen Ajai Singh, then GoC, Four Corps (Tezpur), who had led the counter-insurgency operations against the ULFA.
