Ulfa publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary at the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Guwahati, on Friday evening. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Dec. 26: The surrender of Ulfa founder member Bhimkanta Buragohain today brought the curtain down on a drama that ran parallel with the Royal Bhutan Army’s offensive against Northeast militants in the Himalayan kingdom.

The spokesperson for the army’s Tezpur-based Four Corps, Maj. Jaideep Ghose, has been identified as the person responsible for the confusion over Buragohain, who was presumed dead until he surfaced out of nowhere to surrender.

He had confirmed rumours about the seniormost Ulfa member’s death in Bhutan, ostensibly after surrendering to Bhutanese troops. That was on December 18, three days after the offensive began. Today, the same army officer was busy showcasing a “major success” of the armed forces, hurriedly arranging for a group of Guwahati-based journalists to visit Tezpur for the surrender ceremony.

Lack of co-ordination in the army’s Four Corps was evident even when defence minister George Fernandes made an unscheduled visit to the army base on Tuesday. The army spokesperson based at Narengi in Guwahati admittedly did not know the defence minister was in Assam even six hours after he reached the Four Corps headquarters.

Though meant to be kept under wraps, news of Fernandes’ visit was leaked to a section of the media late that night. Raj Bhavan, known to be in constant touch with the Four Corps since the time Lt Gen. (retd) S.K. Sinha was there, discovered the erratic ways of the army’s public relations cell when only four reporters turned up for the governor’s daily briefing on Bhutan this morning.

Lt Gen. (retd) Ajai Singh wondered aloud about the “low turnout” and was clearly surprised when told that the majority of reporters were in Tezpur to attend the army-organised surrender ceremony. “Oh, is it?” he asked.

The governor will not give any more daily briefings “till the need arises”. Highly-placed sources in Dispur said even the state government had no prior information of today’s surrender despite the fact that Buragohain was to turn himself in.

After the army spokesperson had announced Buragohain’s death, Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua confirmed it. The veteran, in his eighties, is addressed as Mama by all in the banned organisation.