Hit by the intensified operation by the security forces, the militant outfits in Assam and other parts of the North-East region have taken to social media to drum up public support and are using it as a platform to employ youths to extort money on their behalf.
This came to the fore after the Assam Police arrested four persons in last 48 hours, who had been entrusted by the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) to extort money from school and college teachers.
The four arrested includes Pinkush Narzary, an overground worker of the outfit, NDFB faction's general secretary, Theranga Basumatary's wife Monica Basumatary and two college teachers Pradip Narzary and Jitendra Narzary.
“College teacher-turned-NDFB general secretary, Theranga Basumatary, had created two Facebook accounts with fake names. We found that Theranga has 3,609 friends on the two Facebook accounts. The accounts were, possibly, created a few months back. After befriending Pinkush, he employed the youth to extort money from school and college teachers. When we learnt that the money extorted was going to the NDFB coffers, we warned the teachers in a number of schools and colleges, but they were still giving it voluntarily,” Inspector General of Police (Bodoland Territorial Areas Districts (BTAD) lR Bishnoi said on Monday.
Bishnoi said that Pinkush used to deposit the money extorted in two SBI accounts, which were opened in Nagaland's Mon District bordering Myanmar. The money deposited in the accounts was withdrawn there. The NDFB top brass, including Sangbijit and Theranga, were holed up in Myanmar.
Theranga was a college teacher in Chirang District before joining the NDFB in 2013. Because of his higher education, he rose the ladders very quickly, to be appointed the NDFB general secretary. later, he was made the outfit's acting commander-in-chief.
Assam Police had intensified operations against the NDFB faction after the outfit's massacre of 70 Adivasi people in 2014. While many senior leaders of the outfit, including its finance secretary are arrested, during the operations hundreds of cadres and middle ranking leaders have been neutralised by the security forces in different places of the State since then, giving a body blow to the outfit.