Second-in-command and Barua’s close aide Jivan Moran held alongwith Guwahati-based scribes
From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: A top ULFA leader along with an Indian journalist and a photographer was detained in Myanmar but the two mediapersons were later released.
Union Home Secretary RK Singh said on Sunday that Jivan Moran, second-in-command of the hardline faction of the ULFA led by Paresh Baruah, had been detained in Myanmar.
The Guwahati-based journalists who was detained by Myanmar authorities on Friday evening when they were returning after taking an interview with top leader of the outlawed ULFA (anti-talks) Paresh Barua somewhere in that country, have been freed, and are expected to reach Manipur border on Sunday night.
The scribes were detained apparently because they were not carrying any valid documents to enter Myanmar.
Rajiv Bhattacharya, executive editor, and photographer Pradip Gogoi, both from a newly-launched daily based in the city, had gone from here on October 12 to meet Paresh Barua in an undisclosed hideout of the militant leader, and since then had remained out of contact barring an SMS on October 28.
The newspaper that the scribes work for published a story few days back saying they had gone trekking inside Myanmar to interview the ULFA leader.
“They had left Guwahati on October 12 and had been out of contact except for an SMS on October 28 in which Bhattacharya informed me that he was fine and that he would make the next contact in two weeks. But I am yet to have any contact even today,” Rajiv’s wife Rashmi Sarma said.
She however said the newspaper’s editor had told her that Bhattacharya had completed his assignment and was on his way back.
“Today evening, we got information that he has been released from detention and would be at Moreh (on the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur) later tonight,” Sarma said.
Sources close to ULFA maintained that Jiban Moran being the second-most senior leader in the ULFA after Paresh Baruah is unlikely to escort journalists.
