By Sanjay Singh, IANS
New Delhi : Fifteen members of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) trained to hijack planes have moved to neighbouring countries and are being tracked down, a top police officer in Assam has said.
Inspector General of Police (Special Branch) Khagen Sharma said the men were in Bangladesh, Myanmar and “other neighbouring countries” and that airports in West Bengal and the northeast had been asked to go on high alert.
“We have information that the militants, trained specially for hijacking planes, have sneaked into Bangladesh, Myanmar and other neighbouring countries,” Sharma told IANS over the phone from Guwahati.
“We know their identity. We are tracking them down,” he added. “The matter has been communicated to the central government.”
According to Sharma, the militants were trained to hijack planes by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency near Assam’s border with Bhutan, which in the past has served as a sanctuary for ULFA.
Details about ULFA’s previously unknown ‘hijacking unit’ came to light following the arrest of a key militant in Guwahati Saturday. He has been identified as Manoj Tamuly.
ULFA has denied that it has plans to hijack any planes, but no one is taking the statement seriously.
Tamuly had told IANS Sunday at the Guwahati court that plans to hijack a plane were hatched in New Delhi Nov 14 last year.
Tamuly also told the police that their hijack unit received 18 days of specialised training somewhere in western Assam about six months ago.
But despite the arrest and the revelations about Tamuly’s associates, officials warned that there was a serious threat to Indian airports.
“We don’t expect them to carry out hijackings now. But as a precaution we have alerted airports in West Bengal and the northeast and asked them to be on high alert,” said Sharma.
Sharma did not identify the “other neighbouring countries” the ULFA militants were in but other police sources said these could include Nepal and Bhutan.
It is not clear if the ULFA, which has been talking peace to the Indian government off and on, plans to seize Indian aircraft flying out of any of the neighbouring countries.
The Assam Police believe the arrested militant planned to hijack a plane from the Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International airport at Guwahati and take it to Pakistan.
This, the police believe, would be aimed at forcing the Indian authorities to free jailed ULFA members.
Terrorists linked to Pakistan similarly hijacked an Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu to New Delhi, taking it to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and forcing New Delhi to free three top Islamist guerrillas jailed in India.
Over 600 ULFA militants are in Indian prisons. A few are reportedly senior leaders of the organisation, arrested during army raids on their camps along in Bhutan in 2002.
A Bureau of Civil Aviation Security official said: “The threat by ULFA persists.” He added there was information that ULFA was undergoing specialised terror training.
The ULFA, which is known to have close ties with the Pakistani intelligence, has been fighting to secede oil-rich Assam. Violence linked to the campaign has claimed thousands of lives over the years.
Indian officials allege that many ULFA leaders are based in Bangladesh. Dhaka denies the charge.