From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: The militancy in Bodo tribe heartland in Assam has acquired a new dimension with the breakaway faction of the NDFB(R) – National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Ranjan Daimary) – setting up ties with the anti-talks faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) led by fugitive commander-in-chief Paresh Barua suspected to be based in Myanmar.
Security agencies’ suspicion about an ominous nexus between the ULFA (anti-talks) and the breakaway NDFB faction led by I K Songbijit have acquired credence following arrest of four newly recruited cadres including three young women, of the NDFB faction while they were on the way to Myanmar to undergo arms training there under the tutelage of the ULFA (anti-talks)
The four cadres of the NDFB (Songbijit) faction – Uttam Borgoyari (23), Minu Basumatary (27), Anima Brahma (20) and Bharati Basumatary (19) – were arrested from the inter-state bus terminus at Guwahati on Monday when they were waiting to board a bus to Dimapur.
The interrogation of the NDFB cadres revealed that they were on the way to Myanmar base of the outfit to undertake arms training with the help from ULFA(anti-talks) faction led by Paresh Barua. The NDFB cadres were to be guided from Dimapur to Myanmar through Moreh border in Manipur.
I K Songbijit along with about 50 cadres loyal to him broke away in November last year from the NDFB(R) opposing its leader Ranjan Daimary’s peace overtures with the Government of India through the Centre’s peace interlocutor P C Haldar. Songbijit is now on an overdrive to recruit and train new cadres.
The Government of India is already talking with a faction of NDFB called NDFB (progressive) led by Gobinda Basumatary while it is trying to woo NDFB (R) by holding talks with its leader Ranjan Daimary in jail.
However, the beginning of formal dialogue with the NDFB(R) is dependent on the release of Daimary on bail from the jail though the leader has been able to persuade most of the leaders and cadres of the NDFB-R to take part in the dialogue process responding to the call from the Government of India.
Daimary who was arrested in Bangladesh before being handed over to India over two years back, is now lodged in jail. He is facing various charges besides being named as the prime accused by the CBI in the October 30, 2008 serial blasts that rocked Assam killing over 90 persons and injuring over 400 in various places in Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Barpeta Road and Bongaigaon.
Daimary has requested the government through Haldar that conditions on granting bail from him should be relaxed so that he can move to different parts of the State to talks to people on the issue of dialogue with the government.
Ranjan Daimary was heading the unified NDFB at one point of time till 2008 fighting for a sovereign Bodoland. Meanwhile, the NDFB (P) has scaled down from the sovereignty demand and is now sticking to the demand for a separate Bodoland state.