Guwahati, Dec. 17: The Ulfa’s well-oiled propaganda machine suffered a major glitch today with publicity chief Mithinga Daimary, the name that was synonymous with statements by the banned militant group, becoming the first big catch of the counter-insurgency offensive in Bhutan.

“Mithinga Daimary was the Ulfa’s most well-known spokesman, though he may have been out of action for some time now. His arrest will certainly affect the way the outfit conducts its publicity campaign,” a senior police official said here on receiving the news.

Before the Ulfa discovered the virtues of cyberspace in 1999 and its mouthpiece Freedom went online, Daimary was the voice of the militant group, wielding a pen dipped in vitriol.

“His arrest is definitely a big blow to the Ulfa. He was the motivator of the junior cadre in the publicity wing,” the official said.

Till a few years ago, Daimary, originally named Deepak Das, was the all-important piston in the Ulfa’s publicity machinery and provided the “revolutionary” touch to whatever it had to say to the world.

“We are opposed to exploiters’ democracy and are fighting to achieve democracy for the exploited,” he had famously said, justifying Ulfa’s armed struggle for secession and reaffirming its Marxist ideology.

Till the perpetrators of the so-called secret killings struck at his ancestral home in the Barama area of Nalbari district on August 11, 1998 — four of his relatives were killed — Daimary’s statements to the media were frequent.

It is believed that the demise of his mother, elder brother, sister-in-law and niece in that attack forced him into a cocoon from which he never really emerged. The police say he is terminally ill.

Daimary is the third high-profile Ulfa publicity chief, taking over the mantle from Sunil Nath, alias Siddhartha Phukan, and Uddipta Hazarika, alias Rajen Sharma.

Hazarika, the first head honcho of the propaganda wing, is credited with providing the spark to the publicity blitz with a “blend of revolutionary poetry and tough talking”. He shot to fame, especially among lovers of poetry, with a collection of fiery verses titled Mor Raktabarnar Pratigya. Known as “Saheb”, he was lynched in Nalbari town on October 8, 1989.

After Daimary went into a shell, he was reportedly sidelined and another poet-revolutionary, Swadhinata Phukan alias Kabiranjan Saikia, took over the job.

The police admit that before he was killed in an encounter near Jorhat on May 27, 2000, Phukan managed to create “sympathy” for the “freedom-fighters” through his writings.

After Phukan, the publicity job was taken over by the mysterious Rubi Bhuyan, who operates only through the Internet. A police official claimed the Ulfa had nobody by that name.