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G Vinayak in Guwahati
The less than month-old Congress government in Assam is on the backfoot for the past few days following reports of fresh extortion drives by militant groups in the state.
The opposition Asom Gana Parishad-Bharatiya Janata Party combine had alleged during the run-up to the elections that the Congress was in league with the militants and that militants would get an upper hand once the Congress came to power.
A high-level meeting of top police and Army officials was held in Guwahati on Friday to review the situation.
The Tarun Gogoi government assumed office on May 18. Last week it reshuffled 29 top police officials, including 18 of SP level. Among those removed to insignificant posts was the former additional DG of police (operations), G M Srivastava, known for his tough, bullet-for-bullet approach against militants.
Intelligence reports in the past few days have said that taking advantage of the transition period -- when the Congress took over from the AGP -- these outfits had launched a massive extortion drive in different parts of the state.
Police sources said that according to intelligence reports, the ULFA has set a target of Rs 1000 billion.
Several prominent businessmen of Guwahati city have received notices from the ULFA in the past few days.
Sources pointed out that groups of ULFA members managed to sneak into the state before the elections as the counter-insurgency operations took a back-seat and security forces concentrated on providing security to political leaders and candidates.
Twice in the past decade, the militants have struck telling blows during the transition period and in the early days of a new government. Since, police officials are a bit confused about the way the new dispensation would treat the insurgency problem, security automatically becomes a bit lax during the transition period.
In 1991 for instance, the ULFA struck in a big way by kidnapping 14 people in a stunning operation a day after the Hiteswar Saikia government had assumed office. Among them was a Russian engineer who was later killed.
In 1996, SP of upper Assam's Tinsukia district was chased and killed by militants. Simultaneously, ethnic riots broke out in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts on May 14, a day before the Prafulla Kumar Mahanta ministry assumed office. More than 200 people were killed in those riots and over 200,000 rendered homeless.
Latest report says the outfit has planned to raise a cool Rs 30 million from just three business firms - two of them in the tea business. According to highly-placed sources, it is very likely that these firms will do as has been directed by the outfit - "deposit the sum donated for the revolutionary cause within the stipulated period without taking recourse to any extraneous method other than as directed."
Besides these three firms, extortion notes, demanding amounts ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 50,00,000, have been issued to doctors, engineers, contractors, and other professionals, besides, of course, businessmen throughout the state.
In Guwahati city too several such professionals have received the extortion notes.
The outfit has been handing over the demand notes in style - the tone and tenor of its language, written both in Assamese and English depending upon the victim. The notes are followed up by telephone calls.
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