GUWAHATI, Nov 12 � After months of search for his location, the Government of India has finally received �concrete evidence� of presence of Paresh Baruah, the commander in chief of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in the Yunan Province of China.
Highly-placed sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told The Assam Tribune that Baruah has been staying in China for the last two and half months along with a few of his close aides. Sources said that the total number of cadres with the ULFA leader in China would not be more than five to seven.
Sources pointed out that over the years, China has been denying the fact that the ULFA leader used to visit that country often. But this time, the Government of India has concrete evidence of the presence of Baruah in the Yunan province.
According to information available with the security agencies, Baruah has been running gun running from his base in China, but it is still not known whether he is receiving any direct help from the Chinese authorities. Baruah has very good contacts with those involved in clandestine gun running and he can easily get involved in gun running. Moreover, the weapons discarded by the Chinese Army as a part of the modernization drive are collected by the clandestine weapon dealers and almost all the major insurgent groups of North East are buying those weapons, sources added.
The Government of India now has conclusive evidence of Baruah calling up a few prominent businessmen in Assam, mostly those based in Guwahati city asking substantial amounts of money. But the fact remains that none of the businessmen who received such calls formally approached the police.
It may be mentioned here that Paresh Baruah is still adopting a hard line on the issue of talks with the Government of India and according to information available with the security agencies, he has around 150 to 200 cadres with him. Most of the members of the hard line faction of the ULFA are in the bases in Myanmar and senior member of the ULFA, Jiban Moran, is in charge of the camps.
Meanwhile, MHA sources said that in addition to the ULFA, the NSCN (I-M), which is under cease-fire with the Government since 1997, is also running a small set up in the Yunan province. Senior leader of the outfit, Anthony Shimrey was arrested by the NIA when he was coming back from China. The reasons for the NSCN maintaining a base in China are yet to be ascertained, but it is believed that the base is being maintained for gun running, sources added.
