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| Wednesday November 25, 2009 |
| Between Sunday, November 22nd and Tuesday, 24th, I should have made at least three half hour specials. But, I actually had about two minutes on air and another minute and a half which got lost in the din of the Demolition Report. Incidentally the historic and embarrassing demolition marked my entry into the world of television. Now a world of chaos. Just to come back to my specials, let me take you through my last three days. Sunday began with a twin blast. Explosions are a regular feature here. But this explosion should be accounted for. I will tell you why. Then on Monday news came in, about a big ambush killing five army personnel including two officers in Manipur. By evening, another vehicle carrying security forces was ambushed in the capital Imphal. The Bangladesh Rifles shot dead two Indian nationals along the Tripura border. Meanwhile hundreds of Reang refugees are returning back to their relief camps in Tripura after ethnic clashes in Mizoram. As a moral obligation I made sure that each and every incident was carried in bold as a ticker scrolling below Shilpa Shetty's wedding footage or a scuffle in the Parliament. But its the anatomy of the blast which I wanted to relate to you. If you haven't watched news on Sunday and I suppose most of you haven't (surely there are other ways of enjoying a Sunday), twin explosions killed six people and injured fifty four others in a town in Lower Assam. In television, we round it up saying 'more than fifty'. That way we feel we are covered! The town has nothing significant. No landmarks and no places of interest. But it should be of great interest to any student of conflict. Nalbari is traditionally anti-establishment. It served as the bazar for recruitment for the militant outfit ULFA, and was its most strategic base when they operated from Bhutan. Post Bhutan Operation All Clear and the embarassingly unsuccessful Indian attempt to clear the ULFA , everyone imagined that Nalbari has been cleansed of ULFA as well. Not quite. The boys returned, or as I have been told they never left. And today the outfit's only remaining strike unit works out of villages of Nalbari. Say a hundred of them. Not all trained. Infact, most are mercenaries. Their leader is an elusive Hira Sarania, who is fast becoming folklore. Combating them is a division of Indian army and a large presence of paramilitary and police personnel. Nalbari has amongst the best ULFA specialist in its top police officer. But on Sunday that was obviously not good enough. Mintu moved in with a group of boys sometime in early September. He was believed to have five improvised explosive devices in his possession. The police knew almost all his moves. They came very close when they neutralised two of the members. But the IEDs were still around till Sunday, when Mintu and his men came teasing the security forces literally right up to their doorstep. Two bicycles strapped with explosive were parked opposite the main police station of Nalbari. The second was timed anticipating that the police would arrive after the blast. Unfortunately, it was nearby residents who came to help and were blown up in the second blast. That included the Gaonbura, or the headman of the locality. Embarrassment would have been easier to handle, but for the encounter specialist, the fact that Mintu had three more IEDs made him hyperactive. How will he handle this now? Did the police have a plan? Probably not. The intelligence was specific. It was as they say actionable intelligence. The police was on the job. Yet the boys were not only eluding, but striking. They have been trying very hard for months, so in a sense the police were able to keep them away for sometime. What happened then? As I write, Mintu, Hemanta and the others are still plotting and planning their next strike. Mintu is an ULFA operative who was responsible for triggering a blast in Guwahati two years ago during the Chaat Puja. He is also alleged to have been involved in two other killings. He surrendered and worked for the police before rejoining the outfit. This recycling of cadres, post surrender or arrest has been the salient feature of ULFA over the last three decades. But how are Mintu and his colleagues getting away? Nalbari still has a few villages sympathetic towards the ULFA. But it's unlikely that this group has been sustaining itself only on local support. Surprisingly, it's the SIM cards that are helping them get away. The group is believed to be using dozens of new numbers on their cellphones and that's making it difficult to track them down. Which means, Assam and for that matter the entire region will go back to those days when prepaid cards were banned. But Mintu and the twin Nalbari blast also coincided with the most significant ULFA statement in decades. That's why Sunday's blast perhaps carries more importance than many other acts of violence that ULFA is alleged to have carried out. The outfit's hierarchy has two top men in Paresh Baruah and Arobindo Rajkhowa. This letter was mailed to us by Rakjkhowa. I am attempting a translation of the content of the mail. Condemnation of Nalbari blast The well planned blast of 22nd Nov in Nalbari is an attempt and conspiracy to derail the peace talks that we are trying to resume once again. Besides the enemy of the people, nobody who loves Assam would kill any Assamese and at the same time dream of development and prosperity of Assam. We condemn such lowly, inhuman and counter revolutionary act of violence. Along with conveying our deepest sympathies to the families of the victims , we also request the concerned authorities to provide medical facilities to the injured and compensation to the deceased. Whichever the armed outfit the cadres belong to , we call upon them to abstain from killing innocent people and at the same time request people to be cautious and prevent such acts in future. Every word and sentence of this mail is loaded and extremely significant. So while news content is loaded with Liberhan, Manmohan-Obama meet, President flying the Sukhoi and of course, the anniversary of 26/11, this terse email from a thirty-year-old armed militant outfit may change the course of conflict in Assam. But why is this letter so important? This letter doesn't in any way deny the involvement of ULFA. If you compare it with their earlier statements, the denial comes quick and the accusation is generally against 'Indian Occupation Forces'. For the first time perhaps this usage is missing from an ULFA statement. They are condemning a blast which their own cadres allegedly carried out. The second sentence is even more significant. They are accusing the killers of being anti-Assamese. Is the leadership divided then? It maybe too early to assume but fast moving developments indicate that this email could turn out to be bigger than expected. ULFA calling the blast inhuman and counter revolutionary? Something must be surely wrong somewhere! Finally the letter calls upon the cadres who carried out the blast to abstain from such acts. So whats happening? Top man Paresh Baruah is said to have left Bangladesh and is in Myanmar looking for a base in China. I take this with skepticism. Arobindo Rajkhowa was always branded by Indian security forces as someone who would be malleable enough to come for talks but hasn't been able to, because of a strong ISI hold on the top leadership. Again, I have no evidence to this theory. The two leaders from the outfit's Central Committee emerging out of Bangladesh in a surprise raid and the neighbouring country handing them over to India so easily, is reason enough to believe that something has been cooking in the ULFA. Earlier they wanted talks to regroup. What is it that they want this time? Does the government know, or are they going round and round some imaginary resolution for mutual convenience. The statement , however, signals that maybe , just maybe ULFA is looking at a different direction. |
Kishalay Bhattacharjee is a broadcast journalist obsessed with the audio visual medium. Very opinionated that journalism is far removed from activism and he hates long bios. An Edward Murrow Fellow, Kishalay received the Ramnath Goenka Award for Journalism 2006-2007.
