Guwahati, Oct. 24: Police have established direct links with Ulfa’s 709 battalion leader Hira Sarania and are now hopeful of bringing overground the last potent fighting arm of the outfit.

A highly placed police officer in Lower Assam said the elusive Sarania had not committed himself but not rejected the idea either. “He has not snapped communication with us, which itself raises a lot of hope,” a police officer said.

He said a “sergeant major” of Ulfa, Bhaskar Rajbongshi, who surrendered in Guwahati a couple of months back, was acting as a go between the police and the battalion commander.

After his surrender, Rajbongshi got in touch with Sarania to persuade him to follow the path of the leaders of the 28 battalion.

Security forces said after the declaration of ceasefire by the Alpha and Charlie companies of the 28 battalion, if they could crack the 709 battalion, then the outfit could be completely neutralised militarily.

“The 28 and 709 are the two main fighting battalions of the outfit not only in terms of striking power, but from a strategic point of view too. The 28 battalion gives the outfit access to Myanmar, while the 709 battalion uses Bhutan and Nepal,” the officer said.

Given the health condition of Sarania and mood of other important functionaries of the battalion, it would be just a matter of time before the 7 09 battalion too joined the peace process, the official said.

Sarania has been accused of masterminding most of the violence in Lower Assam and bomb blasts in Guwahati.

Peaceniks of the 28 battalion are also trying to persuade the cadres of the 709 battalion to come overground.

Ulfa accusation: Ulfa today accused a senior pro-talks leader of 28 battalion, Jiten Dutta, of killing many innocent people while he was in the outfit, to malign its image.

“A teacher was killed in front of his students and many others, including the niece of the outfit’s commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, were killed on charges of being spies by Jiten Dutta in league with Indian security forces to malign Ulfa,” Ulfa spokesperson Anjan Borthakur said in a statement.

Supporting the protest over the killing of five youths at Kakopathar, Borthakur said they were killed by Dutta when he was in Ulfa.

This was done without the knowledge of the outfit’s top leadership, he added.

The protests in Kakopathar against Ulfa over the killings were also instigated by Dutta, the Ulfa spokesperson said.