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Desperate ULFA targets 'outsiders'

The banned United Liberation Front of Asom's latest tactic of targeting Hindi-speaking populace in Assam, especially Biharis and Marwaris has sent these two communities in a state of panic. Biharis mostly work as manual labourers and the Marwaris control the trade and commerce across the state.

Thursday evening's massacre in Assam's Bongaigaon district has taken the death toll in the recent spate of violence to 60 in five weeks.

"The ULFA is getting desperate. Hundreds of its cadres have quit to return to the mainstream. This has threatened the very future of the militant group. And, as I have said before, the Congress has a hand in it, keeping in view the ensuing assembly elections," said Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who flew in to Bongaigaion here, about 200 kms west of Guwahati.

The police have not made any arrests so far. "We have got vital clues," said Assam Director General of Police H K Deka. He however could not say why the police have not arrested anybody despite having "vital clues."

Of the 19 killed in Thursday evening's incidents in Bongaigaon, seven were daily-wage earners, one a fourth-grade FCI employee, ten members of families of two petty businessmen and a local youth. Four of them were women, and two small kids, both four years old.

Hukum Chand Sahai (50) had just returned from the Bongaigaon Refinery colony after selling vegetables, when two youths clad in police uniform arrived in their bustee, popularly known as Gang Quarter Bustee on a motorbike and opened indiscriminate fire.

Hukum Chand died on the spot as did six others. Of the eleven others who sustained serious bullet injuries, two died in the hospital in the next couple of hours. That was around 6:40 pm on Thursday.

About 40 minutes before that, four kms away, at Chitkagaon, four other youths had arrived in a white Maruti van and shot dead five persons, all belonging to the family of Bachchulal Choudhury, a Bihari settler engaged in petty business.

And around seven pm, the same youths reached Bakhalagaon Lalmati, about five kms south of Chitkagaon, and gunned down five persons, all members of Ram Lakhan Sharma's family, which included a four-year old boy. Heramba Roy, an Assamese neighbour, who was chatting with Sharma was also killed.

"It is not possible to guard every locality inhabited by Hindi-speaking settlers," admits Mahanta, who sees a Congress hand in trying to dislodge his government before it completes its term in May next year.

He said he had spoken to Union Home Minister L K Advani on Thursday night and sought more forces. The Unified Command that includes the army, para-military forces and the state police, meanwhile is meeting in Guwahati next week to review the situation and draw up a fresh strategy.

The incidents look like a replay of what had happened towards the end of 1990, when the then government headed by Mahanta was nearing the end of its term. The only difference is that while at that time the militants had targetted tea and oil industry executives, this time they have picked up the Hindi-speaking settlers.

Of the eight massacres so far, the police have made arrests only in two. Those arrested have been charged with helping ULFA identify targets, or had provided them shelter a day before the incidents.

The Congress continues to call Mahanta's government a failure and has reiterated its demand for dismissing it and imposition of President's Rule in the state.

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