GNLA rebel Tibat S. Sangma alias Jeron S. Sangma of Mekdual, Ampati, who surrendered before the police on Tuesday. Picture by Cosmos Sangma

Tura, May 18: The ties between the banned Ulfa and the Garo outfit GNLA have gone a step further from providing logistical support to jointly participating in training inside the jungles of Garo hills, revealed a former GNLA cadre.

The Assam-based outfit, which earlier depended heavily on the GNLA for shelter in the forests of Garo hills, movement of its cadres and weapons to and fro Bangladesh, is now jointly training of fresh recruits.

“We had as many as 10 Ulfa cadres undergoing training along with us in the Durama hills,” said surrendered GNLA cadre Tibat Sangma alias Jeron during his surrender to authorities in East Garo Hills district on Tuesday morning after fleeing from a camp of the outfit in West Khasi Hills.

The Durama hill range is a series of densely forested hills across the Simsang river which stretches from East Garo Hills into South Garo Hills district where human habitation is virtually nil and law is enforced from the barrel of a gun.

According to the surrendered militant, such training of both the Ulfa and GNLA cadres has been going on for quite some time.

The joint training being given by the two outlawed organisations in the region has apparently strengthened both sides in its armed struggle against the establishment. The Ulfa, till two years ago, use to train its recruits in Bangladesh’s Mymensing district and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Following a major clampdown by the then new Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina and the arrests of Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and other senior leaders in that country, the outfit was left without a foothold close to its home state of Assam.

Although the ULFA’s elusive commander-in-chief Paresh Barua had managed to sneak out of Bangladesh to establish roots in far away military junta-ruled Myanmar, shipment of arms and cadres became costly in terms of safe passage and distance.

This understanding with the armed Garo organisation has been a win-win situation for the Ulfa.

The GNLA, on the other hand, has also benefited with the regular flow of high-end weapons to its fold and more importantly, the technical knowhow on the use of improvised explosive devices.