NEW DELHI: Doubts are growing about the Indian Army’s turning initial success in cap key cadres of the United Liberation Front of Assom. The Army moved into the: Assam forests about a fortnight ago in pursuance of the operation Bajrang, so named after Hindu mythical god, but the results have so far been disappointing.
According to Debashish Munshi of the Times of India who reported from Lakhipathar Reserve Forest of Assam the key cadres of the ULFA slipped out of their forest hideouts and the Indian Army failed’ to arrest any senior member even as it combed the entire 225km dense forest which was the headquarter of the underground militant movement of Assam.
According to Sunday Observer’s Abhijit Dasgupta, the ULFA left behind what they could afford to but no arms nor any money they had collected forcibly during the past one year. The Indian Army came to know of the ULFA’s battle song: “Asom asmar janani, ami torun senani” (Assam is my mother and Iam its young warrior) The Observer report is titled: ULFA country: only the shell remains.
If all the media reports on the operation Bajrang are a correct appraisal of the Indian Army’s performance in Assam, it would come as a damper to the authorities after the Indian security forces dismal performance in Sri Lanka for about three years and their final withdrawal from the island.
The initial reports also are bound to set the authorities thinking about the efficacy of an Army crackdown in Punjab so vociferously demanded by the extremist Hindu organisations in Punjab and elsewhere.
However, Lt Gen Brar, chief of the operation Bajrang, claimed success of the Army in so far as it had dispersed the militants who no longer were in a position to act in a coordinated manner. We have also rendered the main camps of the ULFA useless. These sanctuaries will no longer be available to them. As a professional soldier I disagree with the speculation that the Army has failed”, he said. The only valuable seizures by the Army are lists of senior members of ULFA. Names of the eight camps, Maoist literature and a few junior members of the revolutionary group “left behind by senior members to cover their retreat”. The Maoist literature indicated that the group was influenced by the Chinese leader.
The group leaders often quoted from Mao to newsmen who approached them before the Army crackdown: “The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy retreats, we advance”.
‘The training manuals recovered by the Army showed that apart from the usual drills, the ULFA militants were trained in escape. The documents also showed that the ULFA had links with National Socialist Council of Nagaland as well as with Kachin Independence Army of Burma. Apart from the Maoist literature, the Army also seized certain works relating to guerilla movements in Latin America, the theory of State and law, the changing China and understanding the French revolution.
The fact that the ULFA militants had prior knowledge of the Army action was indicated by a circular from the ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua directing his cadres to evacuate by Nov 19, ten days before the operation Bajrang got underway.
The Indian Express correspondent also reported the failure of the Indian Army to nab important leaders of the ULFA and said that the Army would now try to locate the activists in forest villages where harassment and excesses would start.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 14, 1990
