A promising football player who stole the time lights a tournament at Imphal in Manipur in 1980 now the man who controls ULFA.

Paresh Barua Commander in Chief of the United Liberation Front of Assam could easily have found a place in the Indian football team had he received proper Coaching at the proper time In- Stead it was the call of secessionist movement that influenced him in his most impressionable years. Son of the late Digendra Barua who worked as a Jamadar (head worker) in a real estate in Upper Assam Pradesh was a bright student. He got scholarships in both the primary and middle school levels and passed out with a First Division in the high school finals. 1 took care that my sons grew up to stand up on their own legs” says Miliki Barua his 62-yr-old mother. “My sons have the best qualities in them they never tell lies and they never disobey their elders” she says with pride.

Parish represented Assam State in the National Junior football tournament in 1975 and played for Dibrugarh University for three consecutive years. He was an excellent player and like some any other boys of Jerai village near Chabua in Dibrugarh district of Upper Assam Paresh to thought urging his schooldays that he would earn a name if not a living through football.

 It was through football that Paresh came into contact with militants in Manipur. “One day we came to know that he had left for the jungles” his most here calls The news that he had taken to the jungle came almost a year after he had actually disappeared from his railway quarters in Tinsukia Paresh who had passed his pre-University in Arts from Dibrugath University with a First Division also did his B.A. before joining as a clerk in the Northeast Frontier Railway on a spores quota. He played for the railways for four seasons and also enjoyed a reputation for playing the traditional Bihu (harvest festival) drums with great vigor and skill. “I don’t know why he joined the ULFA but I believe he is right.” his mother says adding “I have brought up my sons to be honest and truthful citizens and they cannot remain silent when there is Injustice to anyone anywhere”. The old lady has not seen her son for eight years now but she keeps tract him through newspapers. I know the papers do not give wrong information and whenever there is news of killing and encounters I look for his name When it is not there 1 assure my- self he is alive. Those who have studied developments in Assam closely over the past decade feel it was undoubtedly one particularly bloody chapter in the history of the Assam movement that is most to blame in turning a section of the boys into militants At least 300 students and youths died during the “forced” elections of 1983 which the Congress-(I) insisted don holding. Hiteswar Saikia was then Chief Minister of Assam. Heinous crimes perpetrated by the police at the time like throwing youths into fire and burning them shooting at will raiding houses and lathe-charging women children and the old alike for not coming out to vote implicating the most respectable citizens in cases all this had a lasting impression on the minds of the Assamese and especially on a section of the youth who were already known to be hardliners in the student movement.

These excesses helped push the youths on the path of militancy and with the help of the neighboring National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) the ULFA took final shape It is one of the ironies of history that the ULFA Which has its roots in the murky past of the Congress (I) in Assam now poses the biggest threat to that part Old sins as the saying Boes cast long shadows.

More and more boys still continue to get recruited the ULFA the selection procedure varying from district to district. In far- flung Lakhimpur district for eleven girls from tribal were recruited and cams of reporters who were taken by the ULFA to that area in 1990saw girls moving around and participating in drills with weapons like the deadly AK-47.

There are tribal there are Muslims and there are Brahmins in the ULFA cadres and there are doctors engineers cricketer sand footballers. There are boys. Who had studied commerce and arts and there are people who had carrier served as quiet clerks in sedate organizations like in the Electricity Board and even the Police. They all dream about a sovereign independent Assam. And they strongly believe in arms.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 4, 1991