GUWAHATI, April 17 � The hardline faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is getting desperate for money and most of the intercepts of discussions between the senior leaders of the outfit were on collection of funds. The senior leaders of the outfit themselves started calling up people demanding money, while, those inside India are also receiving calls from their senior leaders on the same issue.
Security sources told The Assam Tribune that the flow of funds to the outfit has come down and the hardline faction of the ULFA is now facing a fund crunch, which prompted it to launch an extortion drive. Sources admitted that though the raising day of the ULFA passed off peacefully, the police and security forces should not lower their guards as a number of hardcore members of the outfit are still inside India and the possibility of them attempting sabotage cannot be ruled out.
According to information available with the security forces, senior militant Jiban Moran is in the Garo Hills area along with members of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) and sometimes he crosses over to Bangladesh. A team of the ULFA headed by hardcore member Rupantar Kakati is somewhere in Sivasagar, while, another group headed by Raktajit Hazarika is believed to be in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia areas. Nayan Medhi and Rajiv Das, who other senior militant leaders, are in Majuli, while, other hardcore members like Babul Gogoi and Rongmon Gogoi are in Khorsang area of Arunachal Pradesh. Babul Gogoi has been facilitating movement of new recruits of the ULFA to Myanmar and he is also instrumental in sending money collected in Assam to the camps in Myanmar.
Sources revealed that Paresh Baruah , apart from using the channels of the ULFA, has his own channels to collect money directly and he is still calling up people directly demanding substantial amounts of money. Sources claimed that Paresh Baruah collects money through some sympathizers and according to intelligence inputs, he recently managed to send some money to Bangladesh, proving that though he had to escape from that country, he is still maintaining links there.
