People's Democracy

ULFA Involved In Dhupguri Killings

THE United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) in conjunction with the Kamtapuri Liberation Army (KLO) masterminded and carried out the brutal killing of five CPI (M) workers on August 17 at Dhupguri in the Jalpaiguri district. An inquiry conducted by the Bengal Police, plus evidence recently recovered from the area, has revealed this.

In the meanwhile, the police shot down three KLO ultras in the dooars region close to the Bhutan border. All three were involved in the Dhupguri murders. The police have also made 16 arrests so far. Those arrested include several top-rung leaders of the KLO.

The police encountered two KLO separatists at a "safe house" in the township of Mathabanga late in the night of August 31. When challenged by the police, the KLO militants fired from their automatic rifles. In the exchange of fire that followed, the ultras fled, leaving behind the bodies of two KLO activists. Both were involved in the Dhupguri killings and had been trained by the ULFA in camps reportedly set up at Kalikhola in Bhutan across the border.

Earlier, the police managed to chase and shoot down a self-styled "sector commander" of the KLO, Rohini Adhikari deep in the jungles of the dooars region on August 28. Both the encounters saw several police personnel grievously injured. Following the encounters, the state Left Front government has sealed the Bhutan border. Police reinforcements have been rushed to Jalpaiguri to intensify the search operations presently being carried out against the KLO and ULFA ultras.

The police have recovered a cache of AK-47 and AK-56 rifles from the hideouts of the KLO, along with a huge quantity of 9mm automatic pistols and a large quantity of live ammunition.

CASSETTE SHEDS LIGHT

By far the most important find have been a loaded micro cassette recorder and a sheaf of important documents of the KLO. The cassette and the documents reveal the involvement of the ULFA in the campaign of death that the KLO has indulged in against the CPI (M) in several districts of north Bengal. It also sheds light on the general nature of the plan of operations of the KLO in north Bengal, in general, and in the Jalpaiguri district, in particular.

Speaking to the media in Kolkata, state secretary of the CPI (M), Anil Biswas said that the Bengal unit of the Party was engaged in the task of carrying out a campaign movement to isolate the separatists, and the KLO and PWG murderers. Biswas refuted charges that a "lack of development" in north Bengal was responsible for the rise of the KLO. He pointed out that development was an ongoing process under the Left Front government and noted out that the subversive actions of the separatists contributed in a marked manner to a disruption in the process.

Addressing a meeting in Jadavpur on August 31, Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that there would be no compromise brooked with the KLO and the ULFA. He spoke about the need to put political pressure on the Kamtapuri People’s Party (KPP) whose declared intention is to separate six north Bengal districts towards formation of a "state." The majority of the people belonging to the Rajbanshi community, Bhattacharjee declared, remained with the Left Front despite the blustering of the KPP-KLO about their "Rajbanshi base."