The founding leader of the separatist group says other organisations from north-eastern India might have ties to the case
Published : 18 Feb 2023, 09:07 PM
The 10 trucks of arms seized in Bangladesh in 2004 did not belong to the United Liberation Front of Asom, says Anup Chetia, a co-founder and general secretary of the Indian separatist group.
Other insurgent organisations in India’s northeast might also have links to the consignments, Chetia said in a recent interview with reporters in Dhaka on Feb 11.
Chetia also claimed that ULFA did not have any ties to intelligence agencies in other countries, according to a video of the interview circulated on YouTube.
Bangladesh’s law-enforcement agencies arrested the ULFA leader and two of his associates in Dhaka's Mohammadpur in 1997. He was charged with an illegal stay in Bangladesh and holding unauthorised foreign currency and a satellite phone.
A Dhaka court sentenced him to three, four and seven years in prison in three cases. His sentence ended in 2007 but the top Assamese separatist leader was handed over to India in 2015 after being held in Bangladesh prisons for another eight years.
He then spent a month behind bars in Assam before being released on bail. The Indian government is now in discussion with the ULFA as Chetia faces two cases against him there.
He travelled to Bangladesh recently to meet his daughter Banya Barua in Cumilla. He said he had first visited Bangladesh during devastating floods that affected both countries in 1988.
“I thought of building a base in Bangladesh, a diplomatic one. Burma [Myanmar] was one of our shelters. But we had no communication deep in the forests and mountains and had to walk there. No international communication can reach the place.”
“So we decided to establish a base in Bangladesh for international relations. We did not live here permanently then, only coming when necessary and leaving thereafter. Security at the borders was not so tight then.
“In 1995, I arrived in Bangladesh with my family. I wanted to spend more time on international publicity, campaigning and lobbying but was arrested.”
Chetia said he lived in Bangladesh at that time as a Khasia businessman under an alias, John David.
Chetia said his wife admitted their daughter to a school in Dhaka after his arrest in 1997. The daughter changed schools many times and finally chose Mastermind, where she took up a Muslim name. Before his arrest, Chetia admitted his son to a school in Dhaka with the title Barua.
Speaking about who was involved with the ULFA,
Chetia claimed the ULFA did not have many operatives in Bangladesh. “I was in contact with people whose relatives resided in Assam and other Assamese who lived in Bangladesh. No other Bangladeshis had ties to ULFA.”
He said only five to six ULFA members were in Bangladesh when he moved in 1988 and the number rose to 10-12 when he was arrested. “We did not have many men here as we had no camp in Bangladesh.”
WEAPONS
Police seized the huge cache of smuggled arms at the Chittagong Urea Fertilizer jetty when the weapons and ammunition were being unloaded from fishing trawlers into trucks in April 2004.
The incident became known as the 10-truck arms haul and sparked widespread debate during the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition government.
The Chinese-made weapons and ammo were believed to be shipped for ULFA and were supposed to be transported across the border to India.
“I don’t think we can say the arms belonged to ULFA. Some organisations from India’s northeast brought the haul in but we can’t confirm which ones. That’s because the organisations in that region had an understanding among them. That might be the case.”
According to reports, separatists from India’s Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram had camps in Bangladesh.
On how the weapons were brought in, Chetia said: “International smuggling rings are keen to do the task. What can’t money buy?”
A Chattogram court delivered the verdict on the 10-truck weapons case in January 2014, sentencing to death 14 people, including BNP-Jamaat coalition government’s Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami, State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar and ULFA military wing chief Paresh Barua.
FINANCING
Asked how the ULFA was funded, Chetia said they took Tk 0.5 for each kg of tea from the tea estate owners at that time to run the outfit.
Chetia shrugged aside allegations of the ULFA being backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and the Chinese government. “These are all lies. We gathered money from the tea garden owners.”
He dismissed reports that the ULFA had investments in Bangladesh. “There were no such things -- these are all misinformation. The government found nothing in its investigation.”
He said the ULFA was split into two groups. Chetia’s group runs one and the other is an independent unit run by Paresh Barua and his associates. The two groups are holding talks.
Chetia stressed that he would never join mainstream politics though many of his group had.