Fear Stalks Assam Valley

Fear has gripped the AGP workers in Assam following stepped-up violence bythe banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). At least 34 people, mostlyAGP-BJP supporters, including a BJP candidate have been killed in the pastfortnight.

The office-bearers of the Nalbari district unit of the ruling Asom Gana Parishad(AGP) resigned enmasse on Wednesday night following threats from militants.

Nalbari, known to be the hub of ULFA insurgency in Assam, is in terrorfollowing the well-targeted attacks by the militants. In a letter to partypresident and chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, Nalbari AGP chief AkanMalla Buzarbaruah said: "In view of the threats to our lives, I and twoother general secretaries hereby resign from the party." Buzarbaruah alsoasked other partymen to quit if they did not wish to be the ULFA's target.

Alka Desai Sarma, widow of AGP general secretary and former PWD minister NagenSarma, is contesting the Nalbari seat trying to retain it within the AGP fold.Her husband had won from there thrice in succession.

The latest scenario has brought about panic resignations by AGP workers andlocal unit leaders in rural Assam. Similar reports are pouring in from the Barpeta,Bongaigaon and some other areas too, a week before voting takes place on May 10.

BJP Dibrugarh candidate Jayanta Dutta was among at least 18 people killed inpoll related violence since Tuesday night. Security sources say that the tworecent attacks by the ULFA indicate that the outfit has brought in explosivesand grenades into the state to strike at the ruling AGP members.

Intelligence reports say that the outfit has plans to target AGP as well asBJP members during the run-up to the May 10 polls. Security agencies haveidentified around 150 candidates for the Assembly elections as "mostvulnerable" to ULFA attacks. The security agencies have receivedinformation that members of the banned ULFA's "28 Battalion" wereinvolved in the recent series of violence and they had crossed over to Assam bytravelling in vehicles of a particular political party engaged inelectioneering.

Security sources said that of these 150 vulnerable candidates as many as 138belong to the AGP-BJP alliance while the rest were either independent or fromother parties. "The other 12 could be attacked by rival parties by takingadvantage of the prevailing situation," a senior official said.

Sources said that currently, around 55 hard-core ULFA members were operatingin different parts of the State in small groups with small arms. Some members ofthis group have crossed over to Assam in four vehicles of a particular politicalparty and they were engaged in electioneering using party flags and posters."The militants belong to 'Enigma group' of the ULFA," an officialsaid.

The worst violence is feared in the western district of Nalbari, home of theULFA's deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah, who is commanding the outfit'soffensive from bases in adjoining Bhutan.

Prominent among the names on the ULFA hit-list apart from Mahanta's and his wifeJayashree Goswami Mahanta's (a Rajya Sabha MP) are those of state agriculture ministerChandramohan Patowari, revenue minister Zoii Nath Sharma, veterinary ministerHiranya Konwar and tourism minister Jagadish Bhuyan.

Union Home Minister L.K. Advani disclosed on Sunday that the ULFA has decidedon a four-point plan to disrupt the polls by killing AGP and BJP candidates,kidnapping members of the two parties and extorting money from them, taking anundertaking from Congress members that they would not obstruct the ULFA'sactivities should the party come to power and kill police and paramilitary men.