ULFA recruiting cadres in Assam, Delhi and NCR: MHA

According to the report of the MHA, a copy of which is in possession of ETV Bharat, the Central government has received information regarding recruitment activities of the organisation.

New Delhi: Taking a strong note of reports that the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has started a massive recruitment drive in Assam, Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR), the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) to investigate the matter. According to the report of the MHA, a copy of which is in possession of ETV Bharat, the Central government has received information regarding recruitment activities of the organisation.

"... ULFA is doing recruitment activities in Assam as well as in other parts of the country including National Capital Territory, Delhi to strengthen their cadres with the aim of committing terrorist acts to threaten the unity and security of India and to strike terror in the minds of people," the MHA note said. The directives given by MHA to NIA and IB to investigate into the matter comes at a time when a section of political leaders in Assam has claimed that ULFA is on a massive recruitment drive in upper Assam districts.

Recently, Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, claimed that ULFA is recruiting people from across Assam. In fact, Assam police have also recently claimed that ULFA is recruiting people. The MHA report further said that they (ULFA) are conspiring to target security forces and general public as well as to intensify extortion and kidnapping activities.

"The module of ULFA is operating in the Chapakhowa area of Sadiya sub division of Tinsukia district and in the Chabua areas of Dibrugarh district," the MHA report said. It further said that newly recruited youths into Ulfa have moved to their training camps based across the Indo-Myanmar border in Myanmar. The report further said that these activities of the group attract section 120B of IPC and sections of 18, 18A, 18B, 20, 38 and 39 of UA (P) Act, to 1967.

"And whereas the central government is of the opinion that a scheduled offence under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, has been committed and having regard to the gravity of the offence, and its ramifications on national security, it is required to be investigated by the NIA in accordance with the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008," the report said.

To mention, this is the first time where Home Ministry has pointed out that Ulfa had started recruitment in Delhi and NCR. The Ulfa (at present Ulfa-Independent) which has been demanding a sovereign Assam was founded on April 7, 1979, in Assam's Sivsagar district.