The proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) on Saturday accepted the challenge of the Assam police chief to “target” him instead of inconveniencing the public “by throwing a grenade here and there”.
In response to the Assam director-general of police (DGP) G.P. Singh’s dare on Friday to attack him, the ULFA(I) in a statement on Saturday set two conditions while accepting his challenge — replace native police personnel from his security ring with the CRPF and army personnel and move freely in Guwahati for a week without security.
The ULFA(I) is an armed militant outfit trying to establish a “sovereign socialist” Assam.
Singh, a 1991 batch IPS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre who took over as the police chief in February this year, had during an interaction with the media here on Friday not only assured “strongest possible” action against those involved in three blasts in Upper Assam since November 22 but also threw a challenge to the ULFA(I), which had claimed responsibility for the blasts, to target him.
He had said: “Every time they (ULFA-I) talk about me. My residence is at Kahilipara, my office is at Ulubari. They can come. When I have said I am worried or scared? If they have a problem with me, they can target me. Why throw a grenade here and there and harass the public?”
Singh was reacting to the blast that had taken place near an army installation in Jorhat on Thursday evening. The NIA has been engaged to probe the blast.
Before that, there was a grenade blast near a CRPF camp in Sivasagar district on December 9 and another grenade blast in front of an army camp in Tinsukia district on November 22. Nobody was hurt in the three blasts.
ULFA(I)’s statement on Saturday, accepting Singh’s challenge, also recalled the death of one of its key members when Singh was the Jorhat superintendent of police (SP), suggesting there could be more to “this escalation in challenge and counter-challenge”, sources said.
“We know you don’t have the guts to accept our challenge. You only have the courage to pick up a helpless young man like ‘Swadhinata Phukan’ at night and kill him in a blood,” the ULFA(I) statement said.
Swadhinata Phukan alias Kabiranjan Saikia, the undivided ULFA’s assistant publicity secretary, was shot dead by Jorhat police in an “encounter” at Gandheli village under Pulibor police station on the outskirts of Jorhat town on May 27, 2000 when Singh was the Jorhat SP.
Phukan was the third ULFA leader to have been killed in the district that year, dealing a severe blow to the outfit.
On Friday, the ULFA(I) had said the blast in Jorhat was in protest against Singh’s “attempt” to directly or indirectly project the ULFA issue as a law and order issue when the conflict was a political one requiring a political conclusion, adding the blast was not targeted at the state police force.
While claiming responsibility for the Joysagar and Dirak blasts, the ULFA(I) had warned that it could carry out its operation anywhere if Singh did not stop treating the state police “as his ancestral property”.
