Army, Assam Rifles, CAPF personnel.
Credit: PTI Photo
Guwahati: Banned insurgent group ULFA (Independent) on Sunday claimed that attacks by Indian security forces using drones and missiles on their camps inside Myanmar killed three of its leaders and injured more than 20 others.
Army spokesperson based in Nagaland and Assam, however, said they did not receive any information about such developments.
The outfit issued three email statements, separately, claiming that the forces targeted the "mobile camps" of ULFA-I and Revolutionary People's Front/People's Liberation Army (RPF/PLA), (Meitei rebel group) along the borders from Langwa in Nagaland to Pangsu Pass in Arunachal Pradesh, between 2am and 4am, leading to death of one of its leaders, Nayan Asom and injury to 19 other members.
The statement issued by Ishan Asom, a leader of its publicity wing, claimed that more than 150 drones made in Israel and France were used in the attack. The first email statement was issued at 10.44am.
In the second email statement issued at around 12.13pm, the Ulfa-I claimed that the security forces carried out a missile attack when members of the outfit were performing last rites of Nayan Asom. The Ulfa (I) said "Brigadier" Ganesh Asom and "Colonel" Pradip Asom died in the missile attack while some other members of the outfit and some civilians were injured.
As army officials refuted the claims, Ulfa-I issued the third email at around 3.19pm in which it further claimed that the "colonial forces" were still continuing attacks using drones from Arunachal Pradesh targeting its camps. "The occupational forces have continued the attack in the areas using fighter jets. We want to tell the indigenous people of Assam that we will avenge this brutal attack carried out by the colonial nation,” the ULFA-I stated.
ULFA challenge
Formed in 1979, ULFA have been carrying out armed conflict with demand for "sovereign Assam."
The ULFA group led by its former chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa had signed an agreement with the government in December 2023. But another faction led by fugitive rebel leader Paresh Baruah refused to take part in talks without discussion on their demand for "sovereign Assam" and have continued the conflict by renaming the group as Ulfa-Independent. Baruah is believed to have been hiding in camps situated along Myanmar-China border.
According to security officials, leaders and cadres of the outfit still use the border with Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh as transit routes to reach their camps in Myanmar, from Assam. The BJP-led Assam government have said that Ulfa-I has remained the only "stumbling block" in their efforts to end decades-old armed conflict in the state.