Assam DGP Urges Youth: Avoid Militant Recruitment,Return from Myanmar camps of Ulfa-I

Guwahati: Assam’s Director General of Police, G P Singh on Wednesday advised the youth of Assam to stay away from unsafe conflict zones by not falling prey to the recruitment campaigns of extremist groups.

His appeal through a social media post came close on the heels of the reports of a drone strike on a camp of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) in Myanmar’s Sagaing Division on January 7.

Mr Singh said, “...it is reported that there’s a lot of conflict going on in those areas where camps of the only remaining banned insurgent group of Assam are located. The conflict is reported to be between the local army, People’s Defence Forces, and (an) alliance of insurgent groups.”

Referring to the newspaper reports on Ulfa-I’s camp in Myanmar he further said, “Difficult to say who’s targeting whom. It’s an advice and a request to youngsters from Assam not to fall prey to recruitment campaigns of such militant groups. Moreover, those in camps there are also advised to come back to their homeland instead of staying in unknown unsafe places. Stay safe, stay away from unsafe conflict zones.”

It is significant that Ulfa-I claimed that the Indian armed forces carried out drone attacks on its mobile camp in Myanmar, injuring two of its members. The outfit said three bombs were dropped from the drones but one of them failed to explode.

Neither the Army nor the paramilitary Assam Rifles, which guards the 1,643 km India-Myanmar border, responded officially to the allegation of the outfit.

The Ulfa-I had recently carried out a series of low-intensity blasts ahead of the signing of a peace accord between the government and the pro-talks faction of the Ulfa on December 29, 2023 in Assam. However there was no casualty in these blasts.