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Aug. 31: City police last night arrested a hardcore rebel of the Ulfa’s anti-talks faction from North Guwahati.
According to the police, the accused was wanted in connection with a grenade attack on March 30 on a Tura-bound convoy of vehicles carrying BSF personnel in Goalpara district.
The 21-year-old Ulfa cadre, identified as Mithun Rabha alias Rocky, was arrested from the rented house of one of his relatives at Rajadwar in North Guwahati in an operation carried out under the supervision of superintendent of police (operations) Ranjan Bhuyan.
A hand grenade, two mobile phones and some cash were recovered from him.
The police said the accused hailed from Tikrikilla in the West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya. “He was arrested on the basis of specific information,” a police source said.
“Rabha was involved in the grenade attack on a Tura-bound BSF convoy at Dhupdhara in Goalpara district on March 30 this year,” the source said.
The accused was remanded in 14 days’ police custody after he was produced in the court of chief judicial magistrate, Kamrup, here this afternoon.
“He is currently being interrogated at North Guwahati police station,” the source said.
According to the source, Rabha, who joined Ulfa in 2009, had undergone arms training in Bangladesh. “He is one of the trusted lieutenants of Drishti Rajkhowa, a key leader of the anti-talks faction led by Paresh Barua.”
The arrested cadres used to operate from the Assam-Meghalaya border in Goalpara district.
“He, however, fled to North Guwahati and was hiding there after an encounter with police at Ganeshjuli in Goalpara district on August 5,” the source said.
“Though two cadres of Ulfa’s anti-talks faction, identified as Ratul Rabha and Raghu Rai, were killed in the August 5 encounter, Mithun Rabha somehow managed to escape unhurt,” he added.
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