New Delhi, August 2
With Pakistan-backed terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir coming under scrutiny of the world, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) from across the border is now in the process of propping up the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) in the North-East again with the purpose of creating further terror and strife in India.
Intelligence reports filtering into Delhi point out that during the recent visit of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to Bangladesh, senior ISI officers in his entourage held secret meetings with ULFA leaders based in Bangladesh with the purpose of reviving the organisation.
Sources said the much-hyped visit of General Musharraf to Bangladesh, where he apologised for the massacre of Bangladeshis by the Pakistan army, also had this hidden agenda and the congregation of ULFA leaders and their ready availability to the Pakistani delegation in Bangladesh was no coincidence.
Detailed talks were held on the sidelines of the visit and the importance being attached to it by the Pakistani delegation can be gauged from the fact that Maj-Gen Nadeem Taj, Military Secretary to General Musharraf, was being directly briefed on a daily basis regarding the progress of the discussions with the ULFA leaders.
This is also the reason that Bangladesh has suddenly emerged important for Pakistan. While on one hand Nepal is no longer safe due to the Maoist struggle, on the other hand, Islamabad has been pushing Al-Qaida operatives into Bangladesh and settling them there with the local population in a bid to fulfil its commitment of helping them.
The ISI is also trying hard to bring about a reconciliation within the ULFA which is at present facing trouble due to differences of opinion among its leaders and cadres. The ISI in consultation with the ULFA leaders has also worked out a date for a meeting next month in Bangladesh where they hope to thrash out the differences.
Reports here said that while one of the top decision making authorities in ULFA, Anup Chetia, was already in Bangladesh, the other leaders, including the Chairman, Arubindo Rajkhowa, were expected to reach there soon.
The ISI is in the process of getting the ULFA cadres across to the Al-Qaida operatives, some of whom were already based in Bangladesh. The ISI has again apparently offered all support to ULFA, including arms, ammunition and funds, which it would need to carry out its activities in the North-East.
During the height of militancy in Assam, the ISI is known to have helped ULFA in a big way, particularly in matters of training in camps located in Bangladesh, procurement of arms and ammunition and arranging training and indoctrination to select cadres in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Sources said that the ISI was coming out to help ULFA again as the organisation was under tremendous pressure from the Indian forces as well as the Bhutan Government, to wind up its activities.
Moreover, ULFA today faces a serious issue of defining its ideological moorings. Its earlier popularity was largely dependent on its stand against the foreign settlers on the soil of Assam. Thus, its actions were largely directed against the citizens of Bangladesh.
Today, ironically when it is at its weakest, it has to mainly depend upon the very people against whom it had started its violent agitation. With its entire leadership based in Bangladesh, ULFA is in no position to propagate its original ideology.
There is also resentment brewing in the ULFA cadres against the perceived luxurious lifestyles of its leadership in foreign soil. While the cadres are living in ramshackle camps with their supplies having run out, their leaders are living a normal life with their families in Bangladesh.
Intelligence reports suggested that some of the other organisations which the ISI was trying to help in India were the radical groups like the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), which had established links with ISI through the ULFA. The ISI is also spreading through the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of
Manipur.
