By IANS
Guwahati : An Air Deccan employee was arrested and a rights leader detained Monday by police in Assam, even as intelligence officials questioned an advocate, after a plot by the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to hijack a plane unravelled.
A police spokesman said an Air Deccan employee based in Guwahati, Sumon Dutta, was arrested and is now being interrogated by special teams of police and intelligence officials on charges of alleged nexus with the ULFA.
The police also picked up noted rights leader Lachit Bordoloi at Moran, about 250 km east of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.
“I was travelling in a bus bound for Guwahati when police stopped the vehicle and took me to a police station,” Bordoloi told IANS by telephone. “This is a calculated design and a conspiracy against me.”
Bordoloi, leader of the Manab Adhikar Sangram Samity (MASS), is now being brought to Guwahati for interrogation.
Police and intelligence officials accuse MASS of being a front of the ULFA.
Well-known Guwahati-based lawyer Nekibur Zaman was questioned late Sunday by a special six-member Intelligence Bureau team from New Delhi at a city hospital where he is currently admitted after a fractured leg.
The police activities follow a confessional statement by Monoj Tamuly, an ULFA militant arrested Saturday from near Guwahati. Police Saturday raided Bordoloi’s Guwahati residence and Sunday seized Zaman’s mobile telephone.
“Tamuly’s confessional statement is sensational and the latest action is a result of his inputs to police during interrogation,” a senior police official told IANS, requesting anonymity.
The arrested ULFA rebel disclosed plans by the outfit to hijack a plane for which cadres received specialized 18-day training somewhere in western Assam about six months ago.
“Plans to hijack a plane was hatched and we also met in New Delhi with some of our top leaders to discuss this (hijacking plan) Nov 14 last year,” Tamuly told IANS late Sunday while being brought to court in Guwahati.
Based on confessional statements of Tamuly and another ULFA rebel arrested a couple of months back, police Sunday trailed Zaman’s vehicle and then out of fear the advocate tried to evade and scale a wall.
“I thought someone was trailing my car and in a rush to enter my residence I tried scaling the wall and tripped leading to a fractured leg,” Zaman said.
“This is nothing but a conspiracy to malign me.”
The police cordoned off the hospital where Zaman is currently admitted before seizing his mobile phone for going through his call details.
“There were charges that Zaman and Bordoloi were having nexus with the ULFA based on some specific inputs. We have not yet arrested them, but likely to question the duo,” the official said.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said the police action would continue against those who are indulging in activities against the interest of the country.
“The drive by the police is nothing exceptional and that anybody indulging in anti-national activities would be dealt with under the law of the land,” the chief minister told IANS.
The ULFA, however, rejected reports of the outfit hatching any hijacking plans.
“We have no such plans to hijack a plane nor have our cadres taken any training for this. This is nothing but a propaganda by the state authorities,” ULFA publicity member Rubi Bhuyan said in an e-mailed statement.
Security at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati has been tightened following the reports.
Meanwhile, three Islamist fundamentalists were killed in a shootout with army soldiers Monday near Agia in western Assam’s Goalpara district.
“All we can say now is that the three were dreaded religious fundamentalist terrorists who were killed in an encounter,” an army official said.