Letter reveals ULFA of Assam-LTTE arms link

(October 23, Guwahati/Dibrugarh, Sri Lanka Guardian) An Indian security forces has stumbled upon “hard evidence” of ULFA (United Liberation Front of Asom) purchasing arms from the LTTE. The army recovered a letter, written in Assamese, from Amarpur reserve forest in Sadiya this morning, mentioning that the outfit had paid a huge amount of money to the LTTE very recently to purchase arms.

“The money was probably paid just before the downfall of the LTTE,” a senior army officer told the reporter. Although there were unconfirmed reports earlier about ULFA’s links with the LTTE, the letter was the first hard evidence of the links.

The letter was found along with arms, including 35kg of RDX, an AK-56 rifle, a grenade launcher, four pen pistols, a carbine machine gun, two 9mm pistols, detonators and a huge quantity of ammunition of assorted weapons.

The consignments were kept buried under the ground at two places — Amarpur Borbora village and Deopani reserve forest. Both the areas are located along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.

The army officer said the letter mentioned that ULFA had paid several crores to the LTTE for purchasing arms.

“Probably a few arms recovered today were actually purchased from the LTTE,” the officer said.

Former Assam Police director general G.M. Srivastava had said there were reports of ULFA having links with the LTTE and these links started after ULFA purchased a few trawlers operating from Chittagong to Cambodia.

Although the security forces have been claiming that ULFA had links with the LTTE, there was no concrete evidence to prove such a development.

Even ULFA cadres who came overground had not revealed anything about such a link.

Prabal Neog, a leader of the pro-talks group of ULFA had had said earlier that the pro-peace group had no idea about the outfit’s links with the LTTE.

He, however, said that a few “Tamil persons” did visit the Lakhipathar camp of ULFA in the early nineties.

“I was on guard duty at the camp in those days when I saw three Tamil gentlemen coming to our camp with Paresh Barua. Later, I was told by one of my colleagues that they were LTTE cadres,” Neog said.

Neog, who rose to the post of commander of the lethal 28 battalion of the ULFA, was apprehended a couple of years back.

A police official in Tinsukia district said the areas from where the consignments were recovered were encroached upon by the people of Arunachal Pradesh.

“Although these areas belong to Assam, the areas are actually under the occupation of Arunachal Pradesh,” he said.

The police official said that there was no doubt that these consignments were kept by the 28 battalion of ULFA.

“We managed to get the arms and ammunition after an extensive search of the Amarpur and Deopani reserve forests which is divided by the turbulent Dibang river. Deep search metal detectors and various other gadgets were used during the combing operation and all the arms were found buried in ditches, around one to two feet in depth,” Col. A.K. Misra, the commanding officer of the 19 Kumaon Regiment, said.

“The arms and ammunition were hidden in such a way that cadres can hurriedly take them out and use them whenever they plan any offensive,” Col. Misra added.

Today’s arms haul from the Amarpur area is the third such recovery in recent times from Upper Assam. A few months back, a huge consignment was recovered from the same area. “These areas are inaccessible and militants use them to keep arms and ammunition,” the officer added.

-Sri Lanka Guardian