By IANS,
Guwahati : The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was “joining hands” with opposition parties in Assam to defeat the ruling Congress in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi alleged Thursday.
“We have some information about ULFA joining hands with political parties to disturb us… we are verifying the reports and will disclose the names once we have substantial evidence,” the chief minister told reporters here.
“You can make your own inference… those political parties who do not condemn the ULFA for the senseless killings and adopt a soft stance even if the militants continue with their attacks.”
Rejecting demands by the opposition for his resignation over the spate of explosions in recent weeks, Gogoi said the law and order situation had improved in recent years.
“Compared to the five year term of the AGP (Asom Gana Parishad) from 1996 to 2001, incidents of violence and even civilian casualty figures have come down.”
The chief minister, however, said militants in recent years had changed their tactics and were targeting civilians by bombing crowded places.
“Earlier the militants targeted security personnel, but now they have changed their tactics by hitting at civilians… we are worried as militants might stage attacks during the elections and hence a massive security alert has been sounded,” Gogoi said.
The chief minister said shortage of security forces was hampering counter insurgency operations in Assam.
“We sought 120 additional companies (about 1,200 personnel) of paramilitary forces for the elections and so far we have got about 75 companies. We hope the central government immediately rushes in more forces to deal with the situation.”