Guwahati, Jan. 19: Ulfa today denied using Bangladesh as a launch pad for its subversive activities in Assam.

This is the first time that the outfit has been so direct in asserting that it had no presence in Bangladesh.

A statement issued by Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa said allegations about the outfit using Bangladesh soil was an attempt to brand it as a terrorist organisation before the international community.

However, the claim is unlikely to find too many takers, given that Ulfa’s general secretary Anup Chetia was arrested from that country and is still in prison there.

Besides, Rajkhowa and the outfit’s commander-in-chief Paresh Barua have in the past claimed that they were speaking “from Bangladesh” while talking to the media over phone.

The security agencies in the state had claimed that the Ulfa leaders have hotels and other business interests in the neighbouring country.

Rajkhowa claimed that the government of India was trying to use the outcome of the Bangladesh elections as an anti-Ulfa weapon.

The statement assumes significance as it comes in the wake of New Delhi mounting renewed pressure on Dhaka to prevent the outfit from camping there and hand over the outfit’s leaders taking shelter on its soil.