Paresh Baruah’s ULFA on its last leg

NEW DELHI: On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a “peace, unity and development” rally in Diphu, Karbi Anglong district of Assam, said that the Centre was working to ensure that the provisions of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958 were withdrawn from the Northeast.
This statement by the PM highlights the level of improvement in the security situation that Assam and other regions have seen in the last few years, a far cry from the time when terrorist groups would kill citizens and security forces with impunity and women would disrobe themselves to protest against the misuse of AFPSA by security forces. Now, only nine districts in Assam are categorized as “disturbed”.
The confidence of the security agencies—whose inputs were taken by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) while making preparations for the PM’s Thursday speech—to give a public message that AFSPA would be repealed from all parts of Assam soon stems from many factors, including the fact that one of the most prominent terror organizations of the region, United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), is on its last leg now. While a majority of ULFA leaders are now at various stages of settlement with the government, the one group led by Paresh Baruah that has been anti-talks, is an entity that is losing its relevance swiftly. Baruah himself is now ill, protected by a depleting strength of fewer than 100 men and forced to carry out extortion attempts to survive.
“His end, one way or the other, is just a matter of time. He has crossed 65. Years of running and hiding, have taken a toll on him. Earlier, to track his location would be a difficult task, now, not so. He is getting no new recruits. Now the youths of Assam are no more interested in joining such banned organizations where the only guaranteed future is death, sooner or later, an eventuality that destroys their family,” a government official stated.
ULFA’s strength started depleting in the late 2000 after Government of India was able to persuade its chief Arabinda Rajkhowa to come to the table for talks in 2009 following a ceasefire. The anti-talks group led by Baruah, in August 2012 decided to move away and named their group United Liberation Front of Assam-Independence (ULFA-I). Rajkhowa, who was 53 years then, and most of the top other leaders were “arrested” in Bangladesh in 2009 and were handed over to India during a period that coincided with Rajkhowa showing interest in leaving the ways of a terrorist, which he had chosen on 7 April 1979 when he formed ULFA.
According to officials, the use of a stick and carrot policy by successive state and central governments since mid-2000 has ensured that ULFA has not been able to recover from the blow from within. In January 2020, under the Swavalamban scheme, in one of the largest surrender ceremonies, 644 cadres belonging to eight different outfits from various parts of the Northeast laid down their arms at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) auditorium in Guwahati. Of these 644, 50 were from United Liberation Front of Assam-Independence
Under the Swavalamban scheme, those who lay down weapons are assisted in self-employment and offered subsidized loans to start their self-employment avenue. The assisted beneficiaries can take up different activities in primary, secondary and tertiary sectors according to their own choice.
To keep himself in news, Baruah announced in April last year that he was working on his memoirs that would be released within days. The book, as per Baruah’s admission, would detail his more than four decades of journey with ULFA. Baruah joined the ULFA in 1981. During its peak, ULFA would attract able-bodied men in hundreds and as per official figures, it once had a cadre strength of 5,000 men that were divided into “battalions”.
As per officials, the ULFA was once operating three battalions and four company strength formations that were spread across various parts in and around Assam. It also operated at least 12 camps including “moving” camps in Bangladesh. However, its strength started declining rapidly in the late 1990s and early 2000s as reports and proof of the group, which called itself an indigenous freedom group, collaborating with Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, similar terror groups, including Sri Lanka’s LTTE, started coming to light, forcing the central and state security agencies to start increasing their resources in tackling it.
The ULFA cadre, including Baruah, also received help from Chinese intelligence agencies during that period with moral, arms and financial support. The meeting between the Chinese officials and Baruah would mostly take place in Yunnan province of China. The Indian agencies, alarmed by ULFA reaching out to mafia networks in South East Asian countries like Thailand and Cambodia to arrange for sophisticated arms, drew a comprehensive plan to stop them from getting weapons easily. The Ministry of External Affairs played a significant role in weakening the ULFA by communicating to their counterparts in Bangladesh and Myanmar that India was unhappy with ULFA cadres getting safe sanctuaries in these two countries. “Even he realises that his end is near and hence he is trying to leave a sort of ‘legacy’ for himself by writing his memoirs. Earlier, ULFA for us was on the top of security concerns, now it is a spent, dying group,” said a retired Army officer who served in the area.