GUWAHATE: The killings of Congress leaders and their relative’s intelligence officials and police informers by ULFA men has according to observers made Assam into another Punjab.
ULFA men Jan 24 gunned down a nephew of the former chief minister Hiteshwar Saikia in Dibrugarh. Motorcycle borne militants sprayed Pradeep Saikia with bullets as he was coming out of his house. Pradeep was an engineer with Oil India. It is a sore point with Assamese that oil and gas produced by the state do not get as much royalty as they should.
The incident took place even as Hiteshwar Saikia was touring Upper Assam areas justifying the imposition of President’s rule and Operation Bajrang against ULFA militants.
Last year Saikia’s younger brother was shot dead by ULFA men. Recently a district secretary Faiz Ahmed was killed and a Congress-I leader barely escaped with his life. 7
With each passing day of Operation Bajrang the Congress is being singled out as the party responsible for unleashing the Army in the state. Mr Saikia’s election oriented tours have heightened the sense of wrong being felt by the militants.
The ULFA also views the army atrocities like rapes and looting as part of a conspiracy to “teach the Assamese a lesson”. ;
The ULFA sponsored January 26 (Indian Republic Day) general strike was a complete success with all businesses closed. The government efforts to keep their own offices open too flopped.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 1, 1991
