GUWAHATI: There seems to be a resurgence of militancy in Assam after a respite of nearly two years.

The killing of a top tea company manager by the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) activists in Upper Assam last week evoked memories of the days when this underground insurgent outfit held the industry to ransom by killing or kidnapping senior tea executives.

Top brass of the industry attended Mr. Rameshwar Singh scrimption last week. The fact that the chief minister Mr Hiteswar Saikia rushed to Tinsukia from New Delhi speaks of the seriousness of the matter The last three months have witnessed a dramatic return of ULFA and to some extent the Boro Security Force to the center stage. In the second week of December last 15 ULPA activists attacked a police station in Nagaon and killed four policemen in their sleep. A few days later they killed a district Congress chief. In the second week of January the Boro Security Force ambushed a police truck and gunned down eight policemen.

Early this month ULFA activists shot dead a Congress leader and his bodyguard in Nalbari. Shortly afterwards the officer in charge of Gohpur police station in Tezpur was killed in a bomb explosion in the police station. The bomb planted under his bed by his trusted constable was of great intensity.

Senior police officers say that the militants are trying to demoralize the police force which had achieved major successes against them last year. They described the latest killings as acts of desperation as the police had kept up the pressure on the insurgents.

However the police are alarmed at the new pattern that has emerged in the recent killings the infiltration into the police force by supporters of the insurgents. Two bodyguards of the Darrang district deputy commissioner were arrested under TADA and dismissed from service early this month after they lost their stenguns allegedly to the ULFA. The objective of the militants is to break the force from within by brainwashing vulnerable policemen to kill their colleagues said atop police officer but he added the militants have not made a significant dent into the force.

Article extracted from this publication >> February 25, 1994