NEW DELHI: With about a month to go for Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina’s visit Dhaka, in a significant move, handed over two key officials of the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), the banned anti-India insurgent group, to Indian authorities on Wednesday night.
Bangladesh observers see it as preparation of the ground before Sheikh Hasina’s vital visit to boost ties and trade between the two countries next month, her first after being sworn in as Bangladesh's Prime Minister last year.
Sources also said that Bangladesh security agencies have started cracking down heavily on other anti-India insurgent groups like the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). Sniffing an imminent crackdown Ulfa’S commanderin- chief Paresh Barua is said to have fled to China’s Yunnan province last week from where he buys regular supplies of armaments for Ulfa from North China Industries Corp (NORINCO). Norinco, sources in the intelligence agencies say, supplies extremely close copies of world famous killer machine guns, sub-machine guns, AK 47s, snipers and pistols to Ulfa. Besides using these for itself, Ulfa also smuggles them to supply to other insurgent groups including the CPI (Maoist).
Sources said Bangladesh authorities had assured Delhi of even greater cooperation in the coming months, of their resolve to finish off most of the anti- India insurgent groups' bases in Bangladesh and also of the possible handing over of top leaders like Ranjan Daimary of the pro-sovereignty faction of NDFB, Biswamohan Debbarma of NLFT and Ranjit Debbarma of the All Tripura Tiger Force besides the Ulfa top shots – Paresh Barua and Anup Chetia.
ULFA chief Paresh Barua is in China to strike an arms deal with a Chinese company, home ministry sources have said.Barua is in Yunan province in southern China but may later leave for a major industrial city to meet his contacts in the company, known for its high-tech defence products, the sources said. The ULFA commander-in-chief had visited Yunan last year too and this is his third visit to China in two years, the ministry officials said. They added that Barua was engaged in gun-running in Bangladesh besides plotting terror attacks in Assam. Barua had also been accused of having links with the now-defeated Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. Documents found in Assam showed “Ulfa paid Rs 2.3 million to the LTTE towards purchase of weapons”, an Indian army commander was quoted as saying on the official website of the Sri Lankan defence ministry last month. Dhaka apparently plans to crack down on Indian insurgent groups in Bangladesh in the run-up to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s likely visit to India next month.”The next targets are Paresh Barua and (Ulfa chairman) Arabinda Rajkhowa, along with others like Ranjan Daimary of the National Democratic Front of Boroland and Jeevan Singh of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation,” a source said. If that happens in the near future, Barua will have been apprehended after almost 20 years in Bangladesh. For most of these years, Dhaka had refused to acknowledge the presence of northeastern militant leaders on Bangladeshi soil.……More
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