IGP (special branch) Khagen Sarma and DIG P. Chetia at the news conference in the city on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, June 14: Police today threatened a crackdown on those trying to defend the outlawed Ulfa from public criticism for killing innocents and said some organisations working for the outfit were already being watched.

Inspector-general of police (Special Branch) Khagen Sarma told the media that Ulfa had been spending huge sums of money in raising ?frontal organisations? both in the country and abroad, including the UK. He said the main purpose of forming these organisations was to mobilise opinion in favour of the outfit and justify its nefarious activities.

The IGP claimed some of these organisations were ?very active? during the agitation at Kakopathar, in Tinsukia district, over the death of a daily-wage worker in army custody. The victim, Ajit Mahanta, had been arrested for his alleged links with Ulfa.

Sarma said laying siege to police stations with 300-400 people whenever an Ulfa linkman or cadre is arrested has been the modus operandi of some organisations working for the militant group. However, he declined to name any of these organisations.

Several people were killed and scores injured in a series of explosions triggered by suspected Ulfa militants for five days since June 8.

On Ulfa?s denial of any involvement in the mayhem, the IGP said the outfit had always blamed others for blasts in public places.

Sarma pointed out that the incidence of blasts had increased since 2004, when 16 members of the outfit were trained in Pakistan to make bombs and trigger them with precision. He said the recruits had been sent to Pakistan in four batches with Bangladeshi passports and imparted training at Batrossi Hills, in Mansehra district, by ISI officials.

Assam police?s intelligence chief also released a list of 12 Bangladesh addresses where Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua had stayed between 1990 and 2004. He did not divulge the location where the militant leader was hiding at present.

Sarma said Barua had been using the name Kamruj Zaman Khan, alias Zaman Bhai, in Bangladesh. ?His wife Bobby has assumed the name Sufia Begum and the couple?s two children are known as Tahshim Khan and Akash Khan,? he added.

The police officer said there was no question of going soft on the militant group despite everyone, including the Special Branch, wanting the peace process to continue.

Earlier in the day, journalists of the state decided to launch a signature campaign against the Ulfa for trying to muzzle the media.

A meeting at the Press Club condemned the outfit?s recent statement against some senior journalists. Some of the speakers raised questions about Ulfa?s demand for sovereignty, ridiculing it as a Utopian idea that would only trigger disintegration of Assamese society. By comparing Assam with East Timor, the outfit is showing its ignorance, one of the participants said.