[Assam] AT: Army busts four ULFA camps

[umesh sharma]

Army busts four ULFA camps
 http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=jan1807/at02
  TINSUKIA, Jan 17 – The Army today intensified its offensive against the banned ULFA, killing two militants, arresting another five and busting four militant camps, two in the State and a same number in Arunachal Pradesh, reports PTI. Two ULFA militants were killed in a shootout with the army near Doomdooma tea estate in Tinsukia district of upper Assam this morning, police said. 

The area was cordoned off by the army as it searched for rebels believed to be hiding there. The operation in nearby Doomdooma Reserve Forest and adjacent jungles, where militants usually take shelter, has also been intensified, they said. 

In another operation in the interior of Monobhum Reserve Forest in Tirap district of neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, troops of the Gorkha Regiment busted two ULFA camps while acting on a tip-off from villagers. 

Defence sources here said the militants living in the camps escaped and a linkman, Shankar Chakma, who showed ULFA cadres the way through the dense and remote jungles, was nabbed. 

Books with the location of top ULFA leaders, medicines, clothes and rations were found in the two camps that appeared to have been set up recently, the sources said. 

The successes in the army operations came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Assam and assured Hindi-speaking migrant workers, recently targeted by the ULFA, that fool-proof security would be provided to them. 

Security forces launched a massive offensive against the ULFA after its cadres gunned down 70 migrant workers in Assam.

In Sibsagar district, five ULFA militants, including two women cadres, were arrested by the army from Sonari Namtola area along the Assam-Nagaland border when they were attempting to cross to the neighbouring state. 

A large quantity of arms, including AK-47 and AK-56 assault rifles, were seized from them. 

Five suspected ULFA cadres were arrested yesterday by the army at Tahumachuburi area of Sonitpur district in lower Assam. Three crude bombs, a 12 bore rifle and six khukris were recovered from them, defence sources said. 

A worker of the banned group was also held with a pistol at Bokajan in the same district, they said.

Arunahcal crackdown: A number of ULFA cadres and their supporters have been arrested in Arunachal Pradesh during joint operations by the army, paramilitary forces and police, Director General of Police Amod Kanth said today. 

Kanth told PTI that some areas in forests often visited by insurgents have been identified and neutralised. He did not give the exact number of militrants nabbed so far. 

He said the operations by the army, paramilitary forces and police forces of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh were on mainly in lower Dibang valley and parts of Lohit and Changlang districts. 

The Arunachal Pradesh police have provided some extra armed enforcements for the operations at the request of the army. 

The operations were launched following the massacre of 70 migrant workers in Assam.



Umesh Sharma
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Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep
 		
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