From Our Correspondent
TURA: A senior captain of the ULFA, who also happens to be a high ranking central committee member of the banned group, has been nabbed along with three other cadres from the Dalu border sector of West Garo Hills by BSF personnel while he was entering from Bangladesh on Thursday afternoon.
BSF intelligence units acting on specific information laid a trap for the militant leader on the border after getting wind of his plans to enter the country from neighbouring Bangladesh.
The self-styled captain Dergrah Saronia alias Ananda Das and also known as (aka) Bimol Roy was spotted entering the border from the Chandaboi area. He was soon surrounded and taken into custody and based on his information another three militants who were waiting to escort him to Assam were caught in a Mahindra Scorpio vehicle with no number plates at the Barengapara border, near Dalu.
Among the occupants of the vehicle was a self-styled ULFA lieutenant identified as Sarango Patwari alias Akash Thapa. While the militants did not have any weapons in their possession the BSF confiscated seven mobile handsets containing several mobile numbers believed to link other senior leaders of the outfit.
The arrest of the central committee member is expected to deal a serious blow to the outfit’s activities given his seniority. Captain Dergrah Saronia is a native of Assam who joined the banned outfit over 20 years ago. He hails from Ghoramara village of Nalbari district in Assam and enrolled in the organization way back in the year 1990. The arrested militant leader has been residing in Bangladesh for the last seven years and happens to be close to dreaded ULFA commander Dristi Rajkhowa who controls the Bara Ghazni camp of the outfit near Bangakura which is just across the Purakhasia border sector with India. The Ghazni camp is one of the largest ULFA bases in the neighbouring country catering to the movement of militants and shipment of arms to India.
Despite frequent raids by Bangladesh security forces the militant leader has claimed that the camp remains in “operation”.
Captain Saronia was arrested in 2009 under the Bangladesh Passport act for having fake documents and spent some time in prison.
He has told his interrogators that he was heading to Assam but has stopped short of revelaing the true nature of his visit.
On Friday BSF authorities handed him over to West Garo Hills police.