During the last few days, repeated raids targeting their hideouts at Jhenaigati area close to Sherpur, Bangladesh, have netted 57 plastic packs containing 13,650 rifle bullets, radio equipment, 19 SIM cards, computer CDs, 5 walkie-talkie sets and other equipment. According to Bangladesh media reports, police have arrested three persons including two tribesmen, for their alleged involvement.

The camps were set up in the remote, thinly populated hilly border regions. ULFA leaders trained their cadre here, according to the testimony of local villagers, who were scared of their power and weapons. The outlawed ULFA had a free run of the area since the time of the BNP-Jamat rule in Bangladesh.

Although India and Bangladesh do not have any extradition treaty, several top ULFA leaders have been arrested and sent back to India ever since the Awami League Ministry led by Mrs Sheikh Hasina assumed power.

ULFA Chairman Arabindra Rajkhowa, now under arrest in an Assam jail, was one of them. He later accused Bangladesh of “betraying the ULFA.” Critics of the league in Bangladesh say that this was further evidence of the league’s pro-India political orientation. India-based observers however feel that even otherwise the ULFA would not have enjoyed the symbiotic relationship it enjoyed with the pro-Pak BNP regime, under a changed dispensation. Several years ago, on a request from India not to help or allow separatist insurgents from the NE in Bangladesh, the league had frozen Dhaka bank accounts run by ULFA cadres.

In August 2004, there was a grenade attack made on a rally addressed by Mrs Hasina. She escaped with injuries, while 23 people were killed. The incident was probed very casually by the BNP administration.

Islamic organisations like the Huji were blamed. But surrendering ULFA leader Pallab Saikia created an international stir. After his arrest in Meghalaya in 2006, he admitted that he and 10 others of the ULFA had been involved in the attack on Mrs Hasina. It was carried out under express instructions of their Military commander, Mr. Paresh Barua. Saikia said Bangladesh intelligence operatives had helped them and named his 10 co-attackers.

Other factions of the ULFA denied this, but the allegation stuck .In view of the league’s hostility to Indian insurgents sheltering in Bangladesh, it gained official credibility.

Currently, Mr. Rajkhowa and his colleagues are in the process of beginning talks with the Indian government. Two other leaders, Chitraban Hazarika and Sashadhar Choudhury had been arrested along with Rajkhowa in Bangladesh, while Anup Chetia has been held in jail for some years.

Except for Barua most other ULFA leaders are in favour of a negotiated end to their insurgency movement, which was launched in 1979. Cracks started appearing among ULFA leaders during the past two three years, after the outfit lost its bases in Bhutan. It shifted operations to Bangladesh and near Myanmar borders. Bangladesh-based leaders entered into local business activities like real estate in a big way. The organisation also spent an estimated Rs 30 crore in financing selected Bangladeshi candidates during the last Parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile in Assam, battalions and companies began declaring ceasefire on their own. The pressure of continuing police and army operations had intensified. Civil society spokesmen too urged upon both the ULFA and the Union Government to begin talks immediately. The Centre’s insistence that sovereignty for Assam will not be discussed also delayed proceedings. Many cadres surrendered.

Following the weakening of the ULFA, observers feel that the two NSCN factions, one of which is in a dialogue with the Union government, are the strongest insurgent groups remaining in the Northeast. (IPA)