GUWAHATI, Sept 25 � The commander-in-chief of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Paresh Barua, who is still adopting a hardline on the issue of talks, will be sidelined in the days to come with more and more of his close aides coming back to Assam from abroad, said former Director General of Assam Police, GM Srivastava.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, Srivastava, who is also the security adviser to the Chief Minister, said that after a number of hardcore militants including Anu Buragohain, Biju Deka and Bhaiti Baruah came back from Bangladesh, Paresh Barua would feel isolated with only a handful of members still with him. He said that if the ULFA C-in-C still maintains a tough stand, he would feel himself all alone in the days to come.
Srivastava pointed out that after the latest batch of ULFA members coming back to the State, only Antu Chowdang, Drishti Rajkhowa, Jiban Moran, Hira Sarania and Akash Thapa among the middle level members of the ULFA are at large and it would be difficult for Paresh Barua to sustain the outfit. He said that the ULFA C-in-C tried to reorganize the ULFA after the arrests of top leaders including chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa but now a few among those included in the new ad-hoc committee of the outfit came back from Bangladesh.
The former DG said that according to information available, Paresh Barua is believed to be in China, while, Antu Chowdang and Drishti Rajkhowa are in Bangladesh. Hira Sarania moves between Bangladesh and India and Jiban Moran is in Myanmar, he added. He said efforts are on to establish contact with Hira Sarania to persuade him to come overground. He said that a number of middle and lower level members of the ULFA are fence-sitters and they might come overground any moment. If the talks with the ULFA start, a number of members and cadres will definitely come overground, he asserted.
It may be mentioned here that a batch of 28 persons including 16 hardcore members of the ULFA and the rest their family members came back yesterday from Bangladesh and security sources said that the ULFA members got in touch with the Government expressing their desire to come back to the mainstream.