TINSUKIA, April 3 � In a major breakthrough, security forces foiled attempts by the ULFA to disrupt the forthcoming Assembly elections by apprehending a key cadre along with four new recruits in a joint operation in the remote Hahkhati area under Dhola Police Station.
Based on information about likely movement of ULFA cadres, troops of 8 Garhwal Rifles and Tinsukia Police launched an operation near village Hahkhati on Saturday. Five suspects were apprehended while crossing the Lohit river at a secluded spot. One of the suspects was identified as hardcore ULFA cadre, lance corporal Bolin Gogoi alias Saurabh Bora (24) of Bahonigaon, Sadiya.
The other four were new recruits being taken by him for onward despatch to Myanmar for training. The party was intercepted before the recruits could be handed over to another cadre.
Bolin Gogoi is a known explosives expert who was sent a month back to Sadiya to try and carry out blasts and recruit new members for the outfit. After sustained interrogation the cadre led the security forces to a hideout in Sadiya from where one 9mm pistol and an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) were recovered.
The apprehension of Bolin Gogoi, who is a trained bomb expert, has averted a major plot by Paresh Barua faction of ULFA to engineer violence in Tinsukia ahead of the elections and ULFA raising day on April 7.
