DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 11 (MExN): ULFA peace-talk facilitator and rights leader Lachit Bordoloi and an Air Deccan employee were on Monday arrested in Assam foiling the outlawed group’s plan to hijack a plane from the international airport in Guwahati.
Police said Bordoloi and Sumon Dutta were arrested on charges of alleged nexus with the ULFA following confessional statements of the group’s arrested leader Manoj Tamuly, who was trained by Afghan militants to hijack the plane from the Lokopriyo Gopinath International Airport. Police had claimed the ULFA was conspiring to hijack the plane to Rawalpindi via Thimphu and Kathmandu.
The ULFA, however, denied it had any such plans. Bordoloi, a member of the People’s Consultative Group (PCG), formed by the ULFA to facilitate peace talks with the Centre, was arrested early morning from Moran in Dibrugarh district while he was coming from Tinsukia in a bus.
Police seized a laptop and two CDs from his house. Bordoloi also heads the rights group Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS). Dutta, a resident of Azara area near the airport from where Tamuly was picked up on Saturday, was arrested from his residence. Air Deccan officials, however, refused to comment on the arrest. Police were also interrogating senior advocate Nekibur Zaman in this connection as Tamuly had also mentioned his name. Zaman’s mobile phone was seized and he was currently being treated in a hospital since he suffered an injury.
However, social activists in Assam rubbished the plane hijacking theory as absurd and baseless saying that it “very constructed and made up”. A journalist in Assam, on account of anonymity says that the charges against Bordoloi are completely baseless and is “clearly an attempt to derail the peace process” which in reality is the larger conspiracy in progress.
Disclosing that the peace initiative between the ULFA and the Government in India faced enormous resistance, the activist believe that the whole ‘plane hijacking’ story has been cooked up by element within the Assam State Government with active involvement of the whole security establishment. About the CDs and laptop seized from the Bordoloi’s rented flat in Guwahati, a colleague believed that they might just be some mails from the ULFA group. “Lachit does not deny being in touch with the ULFAs, how is he to negotiate with them (ULFA) if he is not in touch with them?” the colleague queried. Sources also disclosed that the two suspected ULFA members arrested by the Guwahati police on Saturday were also arrested three years ago and therefore were “in all possibility, no longer ULFAs”.
Bordoloi’s lawyer, Bijoy Mahajan was unable to throw much light on the case as he was yet to see the charges but he informed that the hearing will be on Tuesday. Meanwhile, social activists based in Assam are wary of the arrest though they are informed that Bordoloi is being brought back to Guwahati. Talking to The Morung Express, he said “.. given the government’s track record in dealing with human rights activists in the state of Assam, one fears that Bordoloi’s life and liberty are at serious risk. What this entails for the future of the peace process in Assam can only be calculated once these ridiculous charges are dropped”.
Bordoloi told reporters his arrest was made to derail the ‘’peace process initiated by the PCG and to divert the attention of the people from peace talks’’. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said security forces are taking measures against insurgent activities.
(With Inputs from NETV)
