By IANS,
Guwahati : After Sheikh Hasina came to power, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has lost its investments in Bangladesh and its commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah is trying his best to make more money to strengthen the outfit, former home secretary G.K. Pillai said Monday.
“The ULFA C-in-C is desperate now to make more money so that he can run the banned outfit, particularly after the Sheikh Hasina-led government took over in Bangladesh. The outfit had lots of investment in Bangladesh under the leadership of the C-in-C and they lost it all after the recent political developments,” said Pillai.
Paresh Baruah has now been shuttling between China’s Yunan province and Myanmar, Pillai said talking to newsmen here on the sidelines of a seminar “Sustaining Peace in Northeast India: Changing dimensions”, organised by the Centre for Development and Peace Studies.
“We had taken up the matter with the Chinese government last year during diplomatic level talks. The Indian government had also submitted air tickets of the ULFA C-in-C travelling from Yunan to Myanmar. However, as usual the Chinese government denied the reports,” he said.
Pillai said that at the moment, the effort should be to check fund collections of the outfit by means of extortion.
“More fund collection will help the organisation buy more arms and ammunition to carry out subversive activities,” Pillai said adding that if the government can check its fund collection, the organisation will lose its strength automatically.