ULFA resumes extortion of tea firms, businesses
July 2nd, 2010 - 3:41 pm ICT by IANSGuwahati, July 2 (IANS) The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is back with its terror designs after a long gap by slapping huge extortion notices on tea companies, business houses and individuals across Assam, officials Friday said.
“The ULFA, of late, has served extortion demands to various people with amounts ranging from Rs.500,000 to Rs.1.5 million,” a senior police official said requesting anonymity.
On Thursday, a group of about 10 heavily armed ULFA militants entered the Luit tea garden in Tinsukia district in eastern Assam and went on a rampage, burning three vehicles and physically assaulting the plantation manager and two other workers.
“They fired in the air and beat me up with sticks and set ablaze the vehicles. The ULFA has been demanding money from us for the last few months,” Sandhan Kumar Tamuly, the injured garden manager, told IANS.
The rebels left the garden with a warning that next time the situation would worsen if extortion money was not paid.
Garden authorities and police were tightlipped about the amount demanded from the tea garden.
The ULFA, fighting for an independent homeland since 1979, had been lying low since the past nearly two years with no major incidents of violence reported.
The group was in disarray after the arrest of almost the entire top brass in Bangladesh, besides two of its potent striking units, the Alpha and the Charlie companies of ULFA’s 28th battalion, entering into a ceasefire in June 2008.
Barring ULFA’s elusive commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, the entire top brass of the outfit is in jail. The imprisoned leaders include chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah, self-styled foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury, finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika, cultural secretary Pranati Deka and ULFA political ideologue Bhimkanta Buragohain.
Two other leaders - ULFA vice chairman Pradip Gogoi and publicity chief Mithinga Daimary - are currently out on bail and are engaged in drumming up public support for opening peace talks.
“The attack on the Luit tea garden is nothing but a show of strength by the ULFA and we will not be surprised to see some attempts at creating violence in the near future to prove the outfit is not a spent force,” the police official said
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- Talks soon with ULFA: Interlocuter Haldar - Dec 17, 2010
- 'Congenial environment for peace talks yet to be created' - Oct 13, 2010
- Talks with ULFA soon, says Tarun Gogoi - Sep 29, 2010
- Peace process with ULFA on right track: Gogoi - Jul 11, 2010
- ULFA threatens to pull out of peace process - Sep 03, 2010
- ULFA rejects peace initiative, sticks to independence - Apr 19, 2010
- Talks with PM on ULFA now Monday evening (Second Lead) - Jun 21, 2010
- Assam to decide on ULFA talks: Chidambaram - Jun 30, 2010
- Assam government to hold talks with ULFA - May 26, 2010
Tags: 28th battalion, assam, business houses, deputy commander, extortion money, finance secretary, gogoi, ideologue, independent homeland, long gap, major incidents, paresh baruah, plantation manager, police official, pranati deka, raju, tea companies, tea garden, top brass, united liberation front