Tinsukia, Feb. 4: Ulfa (Independent) has set up another general headquarters at Hakiyot, a dense forest 25-30km inside Myanmar. It is not traceable on Google Map
Hakiyot is located opposite Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh and Mon district of Nagaland.
The Ulfa (I) camp has come up at Hakiyot at a time when the militant Kachin IndependenceArmy has set a deadline for the outfit to remove its camps at Vangi in Yunnan province of China, along the Sino-Myanmar frontier, a conflict zone, a source said.
According to intelligence sources, Ulfa (I) has more than eight camps in Myanmar and along the Sino-Myanmar border, including at Vangi. The camp is over 250km from Assam's Tinsukia district, once a stronghold of the undivided Ulfa.
The shift in camp has seen a shift in militant movement, making it difficult for security forces to track them. The militant movement has now shifted from Arunachal's Changlang and Tirap districts to Longding. They now cross over to Longding either directly from Myanmar or through Mon. They now enter Assam either from Longding into Charaideo and Sivasagar districts or through other eastern Arunachal districts.
"Most of the recent movements of Ulfa cadres, including last month's ambush at Jagun in Tinsukia district, took place through Longding," the source said. He added that over 180 heavily armed militants, including the NSCN (K), Manipuri rebels of the CorCom and Ulfa (I), have split up in small groups and are camping along the Tirap-Longding border to cross over to Hakiyot. Sources said Ulfa (I) has set up the new camp with the help of CorCom, especially the NSCN (Khaplang).
Senior Ulfa (I) leader Jai Asom is reportedly the infrastructure in-charge of the new camp. He is second to "colonel" Jivan Moran, one of the senior-most Ulfa (I) leader.
On December 3, a group of militants ambushed a two-vehicle convoy of the Assam Rifles in Longding, killing three jawans and injuring nine.
A similar kind of attack was witnessed at Jagun in Tinsukia on January 22 when militants from CorCom ambushed a foot patrol of 13 Assam Rifles along the national highway, 8km from the Assam-Arunachal border, killing two jawans. The militants had been advised not to stay for more than 24 hours at one place.
On January 31, the army was put on high alert in Longding and an operation was launched. Additional columns of troops were air dropped for the operation.
A source in the security forces said the firefight on January 31 at Longhua in Longding was connected to the shift in militant movement. The 4 Sikh regiment, deployed in the areaunder 25 Sector of the Assam Rifles of the Dao division of the army, laid a trap by allowing the militants, who were moving from Myanmar to Longding via Mon, to move inside the Indian territory and then engaged in an encounter with the militants," another source said.
Yesterday, another encounter took place with a group of over 20 militants, which was led by the NSCN (K) and included Ulfa (I) cadres, deep in the jungles between Ojakha and Chatung in Longding, around 40km from the Indo-Myanmar border, the source said. An NSCN (K) rebel was gunned down. An automatic rifle and other arms and ammunition were recovered.
This militant group had been asked to monitor routine movement of the armed forces, the source added.
The security forces had intelligence input that a group of 30 to 40 militants had crossed over to Longding.
In April 2015, the United Liberation Front of Western South East Asia, a joint platform of rebel groups of the Northeast, was formed. Since then, the region has witnessed several ambushes on security forces. In one such ambush, one of the deadliest in over 30 years, 18 soldiers were killed in Manipur.
