Guwahati: The anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Independent) of the ULFA (I) on Monday e-mailed the pictures of six assault rifles claiming that those belonged to the Assam Rifles jawans who were killed in an ambush in Mon district of Nagaland on May 3 last.It is obvious that the ULFA (I) wanted to assert that it was also involved in the massacre of Assam Rifles jawans on that day given that media reports identified the NSCN-K as the sole culprits behind the ambush.
The ULFA(I) assertion has confirmed that the ambush was a handiwork of the newly-formed amalgamation of N-E insurgent group based in Myanmar called United National Liberation Front of West South East Asia (UNLFW). It may be mentioned that a day after the ambush in Mon district, on May 4, the ULFA (I) issued a press statement confirming its membership, along with that of the NSCN(K), the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation(KLO) and a faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), in the UNLFW.
While the NDFB and ULFA are active in Assam, the KLO has a presence in north Bengal.
The releasewent on to state that the objective of the coalition was the “unified and total struggle” for the liberation of “ancestral homes.”
Significantly, the UNLFW came into soon after NSCN-K ‘chairman’ S S Khaplang’s decision to abrogate a 14-year-old ceasefire with the Indian government on March 27 last. The NSCN-K signed the ceasefire pact with the Indian government in 2001 but there was hardly any progress towards a negotiated settlement apart from the extension of the agreement every year. Khaplang reportedly believed that the ceasefire with the Government of India would not yield any result since the government was against negotiating on the demand of sovereignty.
He also recently signed a truce pact with the Government of Myanmar so as to secure its base in Myanmar and continue its fight against Indian government.
The UNLFW has been formed at a time when none of the insurgent groups based in Myanmar currently face the danger of being evicted by the army there. The Indian government’s repeated pleas to the government in Myanmar to neutralise activities of N-E insurgents on its soil have fallen on deaf ears. In the given circumstances the UNLFW is a cause for worry for the Government of India.
