A CRPF jawan keeps vigil. (AFP)

Hailakandi, July 27: Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have jointly launched a massive operation in the southern part of this south Assam district, bordering Mizoram, in the past few days to check the escalating extortion and terrorist activities in the area.

The anti-extortion campaign led to the arrest of Ataur Rahman, the self-styled chief of a little-known outfit, the United Democratic Liberation Army, district superintendent of police Anand Kumar Tewari said.

Police sources said Rahman had unleashed a reign of terror in south Hailakandi in the past few months with his extortion drive. He had been arrested last year, too, but had managed to escape from the court campus in Hailakandi town.

Rahman was arrested from a hideout at Umedguna in Jhalnacherra range of south Hailakandi by a joint of Katlicherra police and the CRPF on Monday. Arms and ammunition were also recovered from the hideout.

On the basis of Rahman?s statement, Katlicherra police arrested two more members of the outfit ? Chunu Kumar Reang, 30, and Sishu Kumar Reang, 25, ? in the past three days.

The duo was arrested from Anandabazar in Tripura with the help of police in that state.

The officer-in-charge of Katlicherra police station, Rabindra Sinha, said Rahman has also confessed to having masterminded the attack in Roopacherra tea estate of the district early this year.

The security guard of the garden, who aborted the group?s plan to kidnap the garden manager, was killed in the shootout.

All the three arrested are being interrogated.

South Hailakandi has become a hub of extortionists, kidnappers, robbers and other criminals recently. At least 10 persons have been kidnapped by suspected Reang militants during the past six months.

BJP leader and NRI businessman Pratul Deb was also kidnapped in the forests of south Hailakandi by the United Liberation Front of Barak Valley ? another little known outfit ? two years ago. The CBI later arrested eight members of the group and also exhumed Deb?s skeleton.

Earlier this week, a gang of seven dacoits robbed Jishu Nath, a villager of Alexanderpur in the Katlicherra block, at gunpoint.

They beat up Nath when he refused to hand over the key to his locker. His two sisters were also injured in the scuffle.

In a bid to check the menace, the SP held several rounds of meetings with personnel of all police stations in south Hailakandi and the CRPF in the last couple of days. He asked them to intensify vigil in the area to weed out the criminals.

Sinha said the police have started the drive with renewed vigour. However, operations are hampered by the inaccessible hilly terrain and shortage of staff, he added.