[Assam] Assam Government, informers and spies also should be made aware of their prescribed fate in a war situation before they claim your cash rewards.

[Bartta Bistar]

*Dispur offers cash for inputs on Ulfa***

A STAFF REPORTER



http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070116/asp/northeast/story_7265850.asp

 Going all out: Army personnel during a counter-insurgency operation

*Guwahati, Jan. 15:* Dispur will offer cash rewards for information on Ulfa
militants as part of a no-holds-barred approach to the task of neutralising
the outfit.

Highly placed sources said the formal announcement would be made on January
26. The finance department is working out exactly how much will be paid for
different kinds of information.

Hamstrung by lack of adequate intelligence on militants, the police had
asked Dispur to consider offering rewards. Unlike central intelligence
agencies, the police do not have a huge budget to spend on gathering
intelligence. Strategists believe cash rewards will motivate people,
particularly in the rural areas, to share information on militants with the
police.

"But we have to work out the modalities to ensure that informants are
protected," an official said.

Flow of intelligence has been affected with the changing profile of Ulfa's
recruits. Also, there have not been enough surrenders in recent times for
the security establishment to use these rebels to identify active cadre.

"Unlike in the past, many of the recruits are not full-time activists. Each
of them has an overground face and is engaged in some kind of job or the
other, with virtually no police record against him or her," a senior police
official explained.

Elaborating, he said earlier militants had to go in for long-duration
training, which would trigger suspicion about their links with Ulfa. On
their return, they would generally stay in small groups in makeshift
hideouts or at specified camps. So, tracking them was not that difficult.

Ulfa has since changed its strategy. Most of its recruits are imparted
short-duration training, which does not require them to stay away from home
for a long time. So it does not raise suspicion.

Moreover, the new generation of Ulfa militants double up as
rickshaw-pullers, bus conductors, handymen, drivers, mechanics or even
salesmen.

"Recent arrests of Ulfa activists reveal that they do not have much
knowledge about other members. Strict instructions are given to members not
to reveal their identities before fellow activists even during training,"
said a police official who interrogated an Ulfa militant in Udalguri
district a few months ago.

The government has also decided to start a campaign to mobilise public
support for counter-insurgency operations.
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