File picture of an ANLA rebel arrested early this year

Guwahati, July 9: A girl of Class XII who allegedly oversaw Adivasi National Liberation Army operations in Karbi Anglong and Golaghat districts was arrested from her Baghjan house with two others last night.

Arti Kujur was running a meticulous office of the Adivasi militant group at her Baghjan residence under Bokajan police station, subdivisional police officer Chitren Gogoi said.

When the police team raided her house, they stumbled upon a well-equipped set-up with “office files” similar to ones used in government departments.

“Registers are being maintained on tax collection by ANLA, letters issued by its leadership to the cadres and clippings of news regarding the outfit,” an officer of Bokajan police station said.

The newspaper clippings include a few on the blast that ripped through a Rajdhani Express coach in Karbi Anglong last year.

Among the files were several photographs of Arti with Prem Kawan, the commander-in-chief (in-charge) of ANLA.

Kawan, the main accused in the Rajdhani Express blast, is currently operating from Kokrajhar district, the police said.

The police managed to arrest Arti by tracing a particular phone number from which demands were made to businessmen in Karbi Anglong and Golaghat districts in the name of the outfit.

“We have found several expensive mobile handsets on Arti,” the officer said.

Two others, Madan Karmakar and Jamal Ali, have been arrested and police are trying to establish their link with ANLA.

“Although Jamal is not an Adivasi, he has admitted to working for ANLA. We are investigating the nature and extent of his involvement,” the officer said. Arti, police said had “fallen ill” soon after she was picked up from her residence last evening and had to be admitted to hospital.

“We have allowed her parents to accompany her to the government hospital at Bokajan,” the officer said.

“Arti admitted that she is in constant touch with Prem who guides her regarding the outfit’s operations in Karbi Anglong and Golaghat,” the officer said.

Prem took over charge of the outfit after Nirmal Tirki, alias David, fled to Jharkhand during police operations.

Formed at Doyang Nahortoli ME School under Merapani police station in 2004 with Nirmal as the leader, the minnows among rebel outfits of the region graduated to become the militant face of the Adivasi demands after the Rajdhani blast in December last year. Five people were killed and four injured when a bomb tore through a coach of the Dibrugarh-Delhi Rajdhani Express near Chongajan, 280km east of Guwahati.

The blast was the culmination of a series of lesser attacks that began following a mob attack during an Adivasi rally at Beltola in Guwahati on November 24 last year, when one Adivasi was killed and more than 250 injured.