ULFA uses students as bombers

Tinsukia: The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a separatist group of Assam, has adopted a new modus operandi by keeping college students on their payrolls to carry out explosions, officials said.

A police spokesperson said the outlawed ULFA had hired several young students in parts of eastern Assam's Tinsukia district and was utilising them for carrying out subversive attacks.

"This is a fact - the ULFA has of late been using hired students to trigger blasts," said Tinsukia district magistrate Absar Hazarika.

In the past week, police have arrested three students from different parts of the district on specific charges of colluding with the ULFA.

"These students are motivated by the ULFA to carry out grenade attacks and other explosions in public places in return for money and other things like mobile telephones, cars and motorbikes," said Hazarika.

On Monday, locals in the oil township of Digboi in Tinsukia district caught an ULFA bomber, Jolen Moran, after he lobbed a grenade, injuring one shopkeeper. Moran was later shifted to a hospital with multiple injuries with a big crowd giving him a thorough thrashing.

"Interrogations revealed that Moran was a student of Class 12 and was staying at a rented accommodation. His entire expenses were borne by the ULFA," Tinsukia district police chief Debojit Hazarika said.

Two of Moran's friends are absconding and police are on the lookout for the duo, both ULFA linkmen. "We have arrested three ULFA cadres aged 18 to 25 who were working on behalf of the outfit in the guise of students; besides, the group was using some village youths as well," the police official said.

The ULFA, fighting for an independent Assamese homeland since 1979, is blamed for a string of explosions in the past two weeks that have killed two people and wounded 50, including at least a dozen soldiers.

The frequent bombings - four explosions in the past two weeks in Digboi - has led to a public revolt with at least 500 people Tuesday taking out a protest march denouncing the ULFA for targeting civilians.

"This public upsurge is very heartening as people are not going to take things lying down. Shop owners in Digboi downed their shutters for two hours Tuesday to protest the frequent grenade attacks on public places by the ULFA," the police chief said.

The rebels have stepped up attacks after New Delhi on September 24 called off a six-week ceasefire with the ULFA, accusing the group of stepping up attacks and extortions.

Peace talks between ULFA representatives and the Government formally broke down last week after the People's Consultative Group (PCG), a civil society team appointed by the rebels to mediate for talks, pulled out of the peace process, criticising New Delhi for calling off the truce.

The talks were deadlocked with the ULFA demanding the release of five of their jailed leaders as a precondition to holding direct talks with the Government.

Government peace negotiators on the other hand wanted a commitment in writing that the ULFA leadership would come for talks if their jailed comrades were released, which ULFA refused.

More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Assam during the past two decades.