The banned United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) Wednesday released a list of nine names, claiming that they were being trained by the intelligence wing of the Assam police to “spy” on the outfit. The statement comes a day after the outfit had released a video, in which one of its cadres confessed that he was “planted” as a “spy” in the ULFA-I camp by a top Assam Police official and a senior Indian Army official to unearth information.
In the statement, Rumel Asom, of ULFA-I publicity wing, said that the names had been gathered from the mobile phone of Sanjeev Sharma, the alleged spy who featured in the confessional video released on Tuesday. As per the video, Sharma, a resident of Baihata Chariali in Assam’s Kamrup district, had been working on the police and Army’s instructions, and was sent to unearth crucial information from the ULFA-I camp.
Earlier on Tuesday, Joint Commissioner of Police (Guwahati), Partha Sarathi Mahanta — the Assam Police official who Sharma said had “sent” him to the ULFA-I camp— said that he did know why he was named in the video. “I don’t know why the person took my name,” he told reporters, adding that the matter was not connected to Guwahati City Police. “I am a Guwahati City Police officer …since this is a matter related to the Assam Police, I would not like to comment,” he told reporters.
In the video, Sharma claimed that his elder brother (Apurba Kumar Sarma), a para-commando in the army, was killed in an ambush in Manipur a few months back. After that, police officer Mahanta had asked him to join ULFA-I to avenge his brother’s death, and also unearth information from the camps. If his mission was successful, Sharma said that Mahanta had promised him Rs one crore.
The Indian Express reached out to Assam Special DGP (Law and Order) GP Singh but he said he had no comments on the issue.
According to reports, the last few months has seen an uptick in ULFA-I recruitments. Earlier this month, a Congress youth leader from Tinsukia is suspected to have joined the outfit. On April 15, CM Sarma, speaking on the sidelines of an event in Diphu, had said that while there were efforts to bring the outfit to the table for talks, the recruitment of new cadres was a cause of concern.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
