From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: A senior leader of the pro-talks faction of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), ‘major’ Hira Sarania has been arrested by Guwahati police along with three other accomplices on charges of twin murder and robbery committed in the residence of city businessman.
Guwahati city police informed that Hira Sarania who was the leader of undivided ULFA’s 709 battalion, was arrested by from the truce time base of ULFA doves at Helsa in Nalbari district.
Police also arrested three others accomplices of Sarania namely, Pankaj Kalita, Pradip Choudhury and Sarfaraz Ali. Police said they have been arrested in connection with murder of two persons Suresh Patel and Bineet Jain who were employees of a realtor Rajan Lohia whose residence was robbed by Sarania and his accomplices on July 30 last.
As the arrest of the pro-talks ULFA man has raised questions about the credentials of pro-talks ULFA members, the anti-talks faction of the ULFA led by Paresh Barua on Tuesday stated that moral degradation of ‘former colleague’ Hira Sarania was a fall out of ‘betraying the revolutionary masses of Assam.’
The pro-talks ULFA faction on Tuesday attempted to defend its arrested leader Hira Sarania in a robbery-murder case, while the hardliner group accused Sarania and other leaders of deserting the outfit with its arms and ammunition.
In a statement e-mailed to the media here, the ULFA hawks raised question about how pro-talks ULFA leaders were being allowed to carry weapons which they are brandishing for furthering their personal business interests and other illegal activities even after they in principle have accepted that weapons will not bring peace to the State while coming over ground for holding dialogue with the Indian State.
In a search operation at Sarania’s residence at Nalbari, one AK 56 rifle, 30 rounds of live ammunition and Rs 12 lakh in cash were recovered by city police.
A man-servant and employee of the businessman, who had helped in the robbery, was also suspected to have been killed by the ULFA leader and his men after committing the crime.
The ULFA anti-talks faction alleged that it was a sinister design of ‘Indian State’ to allow a section of pro-talks ULFA leaders to keep weapons in the name of security and apprehended that it was aimed at triggering fratricidal killings in the State, facilitating pro-talks ULFA leaders to carry out criminal acts like murder and kidnapping and get involved in communal violence in the state taking a side.
The ULFA hawks has provided details about the weapons and ammunition available with some leaders of the pro-talks faction and alleged that top officials of Assam Police must be aware of it but have chosen to keep a blind eye to it for reasons best known to them.
According to allegation leveled by the ULFA hawks, the pro-talks ULFA group had robbed ULFA ‘s armoury 192 AK series assault rifles, five UMGs, eight sniper rifles, eight RPGs with 45 shells, 48 pistols, 227 grenades, 1300 bullets and 80 kilograms of high-power explosives while coming over ground to hold dialogue with Government of India.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued to the media the pro-talks faction of the ULFA led by Arabinda Rajkhowa termed the arrest of Hira Sarania on charges of murder and robbery as ‘unfortunate’.
He calling the ‘immense contribution’ of Hira Sarania to the movement led by the ULFA, the pro-talks faction’s publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary stated that the faction would institute a ‘neutral internal inquiry’ into the charges leveled against Hira Sarania by police and if those charges were found true in the internal inquiry further action will be taken.
The ULFA doves, however, maintained that such an unfortunate incident would in no way hamper the on-going talks process with the government of India to find a peaceful solution to ‘Indo-Assam’ conflict.