'ULFA plans to target BJP leaders ahead of Modi's Assam visit'

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Assam, the banned ULFA is planning to carry out attacks on BJP leaders and non-Assamese people living in the state, an intelligence report suggests.

Assam Police and other security agencies were today alerted and directed to take all precautionary steps to foil any such attempt by ULFA cadres to disturb peace, official sources said.

Modi will be in Guwahati on November 30 to attend the conference of the DGPs/IGPs. He will also attend a meeting of the Chief Ministers of all northeastern states that day.

ULFA's anti-talk faction headed by Paresh Baruah is planning to carry out some spectacular attacks ahead of the Prime Minister's visit to get maximum publicity as the group was losing its cadres due to operations by security agencies and dwindling popularity, sources said.

ULFA had in the past targeted many BJP leaders and killed some of them, including party candidate for Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency Pannalal Oswal in 1999 and Jayanta Dutta, BJP candidate for Dibrugarh Assembly constituency in 2001.

Nearly 100 Hindi-speaking people were also killed by ULFA in different incidents in the past decade.