Assam editor arrested for alleged links with ULFA

A few days after Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta told the state assembly that his government had information that the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom planned to infiltrate local newspapers, Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, editor of a leading Assamese daily, was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in Guwahati late on Sunday night.

Bhuyan, who was picked up from his home, was taken to Nagaon, in central Assam. The police said the editor, who is also chairman of the Manab Adhikar Sangram Samitee, was arrested because of the alleged nexus between MASS and ULFA. A non-governmental human rights group, MASS, has been accused by the police of acting as a front organisation for ULFA. MASS secretary general Lachit Bardoloi was arrested earlier at Nagaon.

Mahanta claimed in the assembly last week that ULFA wanted Assamese intellectuals and journalists to launch a campaign against the Asom Gana Parishad government.

Meanwhile, the central and state governments plan to restructure the intelligence agencies operating in Assam to bolster counter insurgency operations as violence left seven people, including four army personnel, dead last weekend.

Bodo militants ambushed an army patrol party in Sonitpur district killing four soldiers -- Major P P S Sidhu, BHM Gurmail Singh, Lance Naik Lakhabir Singh and Naik Krishna Singh. The soldiers were travelling on motorcycles when they were ambushed at Phulguri village. The troops returned the fire, killing a militant. Bodo militants also shot dead two Muslims in Barpeta district.

Union Home Secretary K Padmanabhaiah -- who held a marathon meeting with senior officers of the state government, army, Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force and police in Guwahati on Saturday -- said the intelligence agencies in Assam would be restructured to streamline the intelligence gathering process. Security measures, he said, would also be strengthened in the border areas to stop the extremists from travelling to and from neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Bhutan.

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