AFSPA retained in three districts to check ULFA(I) activities: Police
Charaideo, Sivasagar, and Tinsukia remains under the Act due to ULFA(I) threats near Nagaland & Arunachal borders
AFSPA retained in three districts of Assam (Representational image)
Guwahati, April 10: Entire Assam was put under the purview of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in November 1990 and now with the improvement of the law and order situation, only three districts - Tinsukia, Sivasagar, and Charaideo are under the Act due to the proximity of the districts to the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
Police sources told The Assam Tribune that there has been movement of militants in the inter-state border areas and that is why, the Government decided not to take any chance and extend the AFSPA in those three districts. Sources revealed that in the other districts of the State, police, with the help of the Central paramilitary forces, are quite capable of managing the situation without the deployment of the Army.
Sources revealed that the United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) militants still have four or five camps in Myanmar and they often come down in small groups to three districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Mon district of Nagaland to create trouble along the inter-state border areas. Sources said that the main aim of the ULFA(I) members is to extort money and they often target tea gardens, stone crushers, coal traders and illegal stone miners. A few incidents of kidnapping also took place in those areas.
On the strength of the ULFA(I), sources revealed that according to inputs available, the total strength should be around 200 in the camps in Myanmar and the camps are headed by senior leaders like Arunodoi Dohotia, Michael Deka Phukan, and Nayan Medhi. The chairman of the outfit, Paresh Baruah has not visited the camps in Myanmar for years but there are inputs that he may visit Myanmar to meet the cadres of the outfit during the ensuing Rongali Bihu celebrations. The ULFA(I) cadres get their groceries from Myanmar itself but they have to buy clothes from India and for that, they mostly use Naga boys instead of sending their people. The new recruitments of the outfit have also trickled down considerably. During the anti-CAA movement, the outfit managed to recruit a number of youths from upper Assam districts but now the situation has changed.
Sources said that there are reports of ULFA(I) hobnobbing with fundamentalist forces but "Now the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan is not financially strong enough to help out the insurgent outfits of North East as was done before."