5 Ulfa-I militants kidnap tea garden supervisor for ransom

Guwahati: Taking advantage of growing unrest in Northeast over the Citizenship Bill, a group of five heavily-armed militants from the outlawed Ulfa(I) abducted the supervisor of a tea estate in Arunachal Pradesh for ransom, police said.

Debabrat Deb, the supervisor of Sati Tea Estate at Bamchuk Beel in Arunachal’s Namsai district, was taken at gun-point at around 7.15 pm on Sunday.

The tea estate is owned by Sati Mein, the wife of Arunachal Pradesh’s deputy chief minister, Chowna Mein.

Ulfa(I), which has intensified its recruitment drive in Assam since the issue of NRC and Citizenship Bill led to unrest, has demanded Rs 3 crore to release Mr Deb.

Security sources suspect that Ulfa(I)’s Uday Asom lead the team involved in the incident.

Admitting that Ulfa(I), led by Paresh Baruah, is trying to take advantage of growing anger and volatile public sentiment against the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, security sources said that the militant group which had lost its striking capabilities has of late been successful in motivating new recruits to launch offensives.

Recently, there was a bomb blast in Guwahati and five Bengali people were massacred in Upper Assam.

Ulfa(I), the anti-talk faction of Ulfa, is opposing the bill which proposes to grant citizenship to minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The proposed bill has added fuel to the historical faultline between Assamese and Bengali-speakers in the state.