It may be recalled here that ULFA was born at Sibsagar on the 21st of April 1979 by a few youth who pledged their lives in the quest of attaining Assam’s freedom from the ‘colonial’ rule of India. The location of the inception of this organisation is very significant as Sibsagar was once the seat of the mighty Ahom Kings of Assam whose dynasty was founded by Sukaphaa way back in1228 and ruled till the first quarter of the 19th century.

Initially, ULFA enjoyed the wide support of the indigenous Assamese people and the young revolutionaries were treated as heroes and patriots. However, with the passage of time, as is with most such organisations, this one too lost its ideological path and leaned more and more towards acts which were not accepted by the local indigenous people. The killing of school children at Demaji, the kidnapping of social worker Sanjay Ghosh, widespread indulgence in extortion and kidnappings and the role that the outfit played in the Kargil war wherein it urged the Assamese soldiers in the Indian Army to fight against the nation itself were things which did not sit well with the general public. The alienation of the outfit from the people of Assam was a direct result of the ill advised steps that the outfit continually took. Operations initiated by the Indian union to curb the ‘nationalistic’ movement initiated by the outfit such as Operation Bajrang in 1990 and Operation Rhino in 1992 made matters worse and ultimately led to the leaders of the outfit leaving their bastion of Assam and seeking refuge in Bangladesh whose ruling government at the time was widely anti – Indian in nature.

Bangladesh was a safe haven for leaders such as Paresh Baruah as here, they could vanish in plain sight. The likelihood that the Bangladesh government of the time was going to take any action against them was highly unlikely because, as stated before, it was, for the most part, anti – India. Even on the slim chance that India could pressure Bangladesh to initiate any sort of operation against the leaders and the numerous bases of the outfit that were operational within Bangladesh, the absence of any sort of extradition treaty between the two countries acted as another form of defence for ULFA. In the absence of such a treaty, any offender against the Indian nation who is arrested in Bangladesh will have to be tried under Bangladeshi law and this usually amounted to the proverbial ‘slap on the wrist’. Bangladesh was in no way obliged to hand over any criminals to India, regardless of the severity of the crimes he had committed in India. It was thus that the leaders of ULFA began a ‘remote war’ on the Indian Union from the safety of its neighbouring country. They could plan in leisure while living comfortable lives and then simply relay their orders to their subordinates in India who would then wreak havoc. This ‘remote war’ resulted in a number of bombings, abductions, executions and other such acts, most of which claimed the lives of innumerable innocents. This widened the chasm between the outfit and the people who, at one point of time heralded them as champions of a noble cause.

By this time, the people of Assam had become disillusioned at the prospect of Assam as a nation which was propagated by ULFA and its leaders. This idea had, by this time become lost in transition and ULFA, once the champion of the people, had mutated into its main nemesis. The outfit increasingly resorted to criminal and monetary oriented endeavours such as becoming a facilitator for the sale of arms to the numerous militant groups which were frequently being born in the region at the time.

It has been rightly said that the return to power of Sheikh Hasina and the Awami league led by her in Bangladesh has completely decimated the idea of Bangladesh as a haven for these militants. Numerous events since Sheikh Hasina took her oath as Prime Minister of Bangladesh on the 6th of January 2009 are evidence of this. The leadership of numerous militant organisations which had, up till now remained steadfast in their struggle against the Indian union; began to crumble and topple over and this has resulted in somewhat of a domino effect. It is beyond contention that there has never before been such a number of ‘surrenders’ of the top cadre of so many militant groups as has been seen in the past year. Apart from this, with the help of the Bangladesh government, Indian authorities have had immense success in apprehending those not willing to surrender.

Another very significant development is the fact that there is a very high possibility of India and Bangladesh coming to terms and signing an unprecedented extradition treaty by the time this issue of Eastern Panorama hits the stands. When this treaty is finally signed, we feel that the collapse of the militant pantheon will finally reach its inevitable conclusion, the extinction of ULFA, with other militant groups based in Bangladesh following suit. With the conclusion of such a treaty, we feel that even though we have always been pro – talks between the Government of India and militant groups, India should seize the opportunity and dictate terms. It should drive the final nail in the coffin and refuse further talks until and unless the militant groups lay down their arms and surrender.

ULFA must understand that Assam as a nation is not a feasible notion. Had it been, would Mr. Gopinath Bordoloi who was the first Chief Minister of the Indian state of Assam, and also a leading Indian independence activist not have been one of the first to champion such a cause way back in 1947?

Dr. K. K. Jhunjhunwala