Prevent insurgents from returning to old tactics
The abduction of Kuldip Moran, the son of BJP leader Ratneswar Moran, from eastern Assam's Tinsukia district by the anti-talk faction of the United liberation Front of Asom (UlFA) is a grim reminder to the dark old days of the outfits violence and atrocities in the State. The Government both at the Centre and in the State must not be complacent with the dreaded militant group just because many of its top leaders were either surrendered or extradited from Bangladesh in the recent past. This being the second act of the insurgents within a month, the security and intelligence agencies of the State, should immediately get down to the ground reality and track its network across Assam and neighbouring states. Further, UlFA's ageing commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah is still believed to be hiding in deep Myanmar jungles and hence, the Union Government should initiate all necessary steps for holding talks with the current Government of the National league for Democracy in Myanmar followed by the joint operation of armed forces of both the countries against the militants. This could send a strong signal to the outlawed organisation that its decades old clandestine network of violence has no place in the State. As the Union Government is already launching its army operation against the notorious National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) along the India-Myanmar border, so there is every possibility that the NSCN (K) and the UlFA may coordinate their actions and mount attack both on the army and the civilians. The swift actions of the intelligence agencies can only rightly help in tracking the underground activities of the militants who are much better acquainted with the jungles and hilly terrains of the north-eastern States and the long international border stretch along these states. Else nabbing them and their informers who work excellently in the past to pass information and other details of force movements can badly fail the operations against the militants.
Demanding a ransom of one crore from the parents of Kuldip, by releasing an Islamic State style video of the hostage, the UlFA is probably back with an old tactic mixed with a new style. Neither the militants nor the people of Assam are unfamiliar with the kidnappings of UlFA as it used to be a regular affair in the early 1990s. Why the UlFA and other terrorist outfits like that of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Sangbijit (NDFB-S) still have the power to create violence in the StateIJ Do they enjoy public support even todayIJ Is it because of the laxity of the State Government that these outfits are still aliveIJ Time has obviously come for a definite answer to all these questions which are haunting the people of Assam for nearly four decades. The resource rich and peace loving people of Assam need development, not terrorism for sure.