Lt Gen. B.S. Jaswal addresses the media on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Sept. 26: Ulfa could be heading for a split, unable to absorb the aftershocks of reverses it has suffered in the past few months.

This disclosure was made by Lt Gen. B.S. Jaswal, the new general-officer-commanding of the Tezpur-based 4 Corps, at a news conference here today. He said intercepted electronic messages of the banned outfit pointed to this development.

The GOC said the messages indicated serious “dissension and disgruntlement” in the Ulfa rank and file that had led to “internecine clashes” within the outfit.

“Something is definitely brewing in Ulfa and a split may ultimately take place,” he added.

Gen. Jaswal attributed the churning within Ulfa to marginalisation of leadership, brought about by the arrest of top guns like 28 Battalion commander Prabal Neog, and the hardships faced by its activists at the grassroots.

He said the Ulfa activists were under tremendous physical and psychological pressure. “They are dying of malaria without any treatment. They are also finding themselves choked due to increasing pressure from the security forces.”

Gen. Jaswal’s revelation comes amid reports that serious differences have cropped up within Ulfa over the functioning of the outfit.

The general said it was because of the decimation of its strength that Ulfa was now forging alliances with other militant groups and outsourcing its subversive activities by hiring “unemployed and even mentally deranged” youths to plant bombs or lob grenades.

“Ulfa is marginalised and its leadership has been neutralised. Out of desperation it is attacking soft targets.”

The GOC suggested that villagers should be armed to prevent Ulfa from attacking innocent people.

He said Ulfa, which had been completely marginalised after Operation All Clear in Bhutan, had regrouped during the unilateral ceasefire offered by the government last year to facilitate peace talks.

“If it (the outfit) wants a ceasefire, we must make it clear that it first needs to come to a designated camp.”