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Choppers to be used in Assam to prevent poll-related violence

The army has decided to launch air surveillance with MI-17 helicopters in Assam to stop the insurgents from sparking off another round of major pre-poll violence.

The GOC-in-C of the 4 Corps, Lt Gen D B Sekhatkar said a crucial meeting of the unified command, that looks after the counter-insurgency operations in the state, will be held on September 9 in Guwahati involving civilian authorities to finalise the routes of flight and other deployment of forces.

The army has also decided to launch motorcycle surveillance and river monitoring to plug all the holes. ''I know the Bhutan based ULFA militants will come down in a bid to disrupt the polls, but let me tell you that I am not going to allow them to return to the camp,'' Lt Gen Sekhatkar said.

The civil and army authorities are chalking out strategies in view of reports that ULFA will resort to violence during the elections. Already, in the past two days, ULFA militants have killed two persons, including a CRPF lance naik in central Assam, and blasted a bomb on a police patrol party in Kokrajhar district.

To face any eventuality, the army has divided the Brahmaputra valley into four rough zones for aerial surveillance through helicopters. ''These bases will be at Kokrajhar, Rangia, Missamari amd Dinjan,'' Lt Gen Shekhatkar said. ''As the choppers can fly only for two hours at a stretch we had to have four bases for better surveillance, and pilots are being well briefed about the locations they are going to survey. Any suspicious activities will be followed by our motorcycle borne surveillance and river border surveillance team for quick action,'' he said.

The Kokrajhar base will oversee Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Goalpara and specially the Indo-Bhutan border, while Rangia will be the key base for crucial Nalbari district, Rangia sub-division and the Indo-Bhutan border belt, besides the Kamrup district.

Moreover, the Missamari base near Tezpur will monitor central Assam covering both sides of the bank of the Brahmaputra along with the interiors of Nagaon district. The Dinjan base will monitor the north Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and the entire upper Assam. Although the general did not specify the number of choppers to be pressed into service, indications are that a full squadron might be deployed.

The general gave an indication that the ULFA militants might try to hit specific individual targets rather than going out like the last time, hitting smaller targets to create a fear psychosis. In the last elections, the underground outfit went after smaller party workers, burnt party offices but could not touch the main leaders or candidates except for an attack on state municipal administration minister Biraj Sharma when he was shot at and injured critically.

Regarding ULFA, the general said, ''They are over the hump now. We know exactly what is happening in Bhutan camps where there are 2,000 militants holed up fighting with seasonal diseases and with reducing number of medicines''.

''We must tell you about Biplab Sonowal, who had come out of the Khaplangrun ULFA camp in Myanmar with a Myanmarese girl and surrendered at Jairampur on August 28 in Arunachal Pradesh. His debriefing only confirmed that a sense of defiance has been growing among the middle level ULFA cadres,'' he said.

UNI

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