Nov. 4: Tea garden executives used to living it up at planters’ clubs on Saturday nights will now have to stay indoors. But the Indian Tea Association (ITA) believes that is a small price to pay for safety.

The ITA has issued a notice barring managerial staff of estates in Cachar and Upper Assam from venturing out at night at the risk of being abducted or killed by militants.

The directive follows intelligence warnings about the Ulfa’s strategy to eliminate executives of gardens that have refused to pay money.

An official of Zone II of the Assam Branch of the Indian Tea Association (ABITA), based in Jorhat, confirmed receipt of the notice. He said the ITA had explicitly stated that reports about possible attacks by the Ulfa on tea executives “are not to be taken lightly”.

Dibrugarh-based officials of the organisation, however, said they were yet to receive any communiqué from the ITA. Dibrugarh district has scores of tea gardens, including some owned by big companies. ABITA’s Zone II includes tea estates in Jorhat, Golaghat and parts of Sivasagar district.

An industry source in Silchar said the ITA had asked all its member gardens to beef up “internal security” to thwart possible attacks by militants. He said sirens had been fitted in most factories and bungalows.

The ITA’s Surma Valley branch has requested the Cachar administration to intensify night patrolling by police in all plantations in the district.

An official source said the administration planned to set up additional checkposts along the district’s borders with Manipur, Mizoram and the North Cachar Hills.

Apart from the Dima Halam Daoga, the NSCN (I-M), the United National Liberation Front of Manipur, the Bru National Liberation Front and the Hmar People’s Convention (Democratic) are active in the Cachar tea belt.

Intelligence agencies say the Hmar outfit is gearing up for an extortion drive in the tea estates.

On Saturday, militants suspected to be from the DHD killed a factory guard and injured two in a pre-dawn raid on Pathemara tea estate in the same district. However, the rebels could not enter the factory.

A few hours after the incident in Cachar, security forces rescued Phanidhar Rajak, the abducted manager of Lakhimijan tea estate in Jorhat district, from Wokha in nearby Nagaland. He had been whisked away from the 90-bigha estate last week.

Assam has a 350-km-long border with Nagaland. There are nearly 100 tea gardens, small and big, along the entire stretch of border. However, more garden executives have been abducted from Cachar than anywhere else in the state.

In the past few years, militants have taken at least 12 Cachar-based tea executives hostage.

Three years ago, Naga militants had abducted Rajat Banerjee, an assistant manager at Pathemara tea estate.

He was killed in an encounter between his captors and security forces.