Security personnel at the site of the encounter. A Telegraph picture

Guwahati, Sept. 15: The killing of Ulfa leader Sasanka Baruah has opened a can of worms with civil and police officials in the Unified Command, headed by chief minister Tarun Gogoi, lodging a strong protest with the army for its unilateral role in eliminating the militant.

Senior police officials under the Unified Command today said these kinds of unilateral decisions by the army would complicate the peace process.

“This kind of unilateral decision by a few army officers will become a hurdle in our efforts to convince more Ulfa cadres to join the peace process,” a police officer said.

The police’s displeasure has been communicated to the army while a formal protest will be lodged during the next meeting of the strategy group of the Unified Command within a few days.

The police officer said it was because of the “hardline approach” by the army that Bijoy Chinese, the commander of the B company of the 28 battalion, had decided against joining the ceasefire group.

“Chinese was very interested to join the ceasefire group but decided against it soon after the army started killing some senior cadres in Upper Assam,” the officer said.

The protest comes in the wake of the pro-peace group of Ulfa blaming the army of killing Sasanka in cold blood.

Mrinal Hazarika, one of the leaders of the pro-peace group, has even threatened to call off the ceasefire if such senseless killings continue.

Another leader of the pro-peace group, Jiten Dutta, while blaming the army for the cold-blooded killing, said it was trying to destabilise the peace process.

“A few army officers are not happy with the peace process. These officers want to create a rift between the pro-peace group and the Ulfa leadership,” he said.

To add fuel to the fire, Bokakhat police today stumbled on evidence that Sasanka was holed up in a private tourist lodge in Kaziranga National Park in the name of Ajit Gogoi who went missing on September 11, a day before the Ulfa militant was killed.

The owner of the lodge had filed a complaint with the police that the person who was staying in the room had gone missing.

The police found that the man, who had entered his name as Ajit Gogoi from Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh, resembled the photograph of Sasanka.

The police recovered a mobile phone, a sealed envelope wrapped in a towel and clothes from the room.

The sub-divisional police officer of Bokakhat, Nobin Singh, said Ajit Gogoi checked into the hotel in the evening of September 11.

He went for dinner in a nearby hotel later that night but did not return.

“As of now we can only say that Ajit Gogoi is still missing. Investigations are on,” he said.

Sources said unidentified persons who had come in two vehicles forced Ajit Gogoi into a vehicle from near a hotel around 8pm.

The army claimed Sasanka died in an encounter inside Dirok reserve forest in Tinsukia district on September 12, a day after Ajit Gogoi went missing from the Kaziranga lodge.

The distance between Kaziranga National Park and Dirok reserve forest in Tinsukia district is nearly 350km and it takes nearly seven hours to cover the stretch.

The army had also claimed that it had busted an attempt by Ulfa to reassemble its 28 battalion after it split to form the pro-talks group.

The army claims it had specific information that Sasanka was travelling from Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh to Margherita in Tinsukia through the Dirok reserve forest.

The army laid a trap and killed him in an encounter.