Rajeev Bhattacharyya
The small camp of United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) at Taga, near the Chindwin River in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region, had an unusual visitor sometime in the second week of April. His stay coincided with the celebration of the traditional Assamese Bihu festival in the camp;
he also held a series of meetings with senior functionaries of other separatist rebel groups that had camps in that region. The visitor quietly slipped away two weeks later via a meandering route – long before the Indian security agencies received information about the episode.
The visitor was none other than Paresh Baruah, the chief of the ULFA(I), which is a banned separatist outfit in India.
The ULFA(I) became active in Assam in the early 1980s with the objective of gaining independence from India. Baruah is one of the most wanted men in India, who has dodged at least five assassination attempts over the past three decades. He is believed to have traveled to Taga in Myanmar from Yunnan in China after a gap of seven years.
Almost three months after his visit to Taga came a drone attack. In the early hours of July 13, two ULFA(I) camps and one camp of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur were hit in Myanmar’s “Naga Self-Administered Zone.”
The camps were around 10-15 kilometers from the border with India. Three functionaries of the ULFA(I), including Nayan Asom who headed the Lower Council, were killed and 19 were injured.
The needle of suspicion pointed at the Indian Army, which has been combating separatist groups in India’s Northeast since the late 1950s. The army, however, was quick to deny its involvement. An army public relations officer in Guwahati was quoted by the media as saying, “There are no inputs with the Indian Army of such an operation.”
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