The Army has raised alarm about presence of 'sleeper agents' of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence among the large 'migrated population' in Assam and alleged that 'external forces' were playing a role in helping the banned ULFA.
During interaction with media persons on Wednesday, the GOC in C of the 4 Corps of Indian Army, Lt General R K Chhabra said: "The Pakistani ISI, which is backing the ULFA in cooperation with the Director General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) in Bangladesh, has sleeper agents amongst the migrated population living in river isles and other remote locations in the state."
The Army official said, "The role of external forces in the insurgency is obvious given that top ULFA leaders are sitting in Bangladesh, thanks to the ISI and DGFI. Jehadi groups from Bangladesh are providing all kinds moral and material to the ULFA. There are jehadi elements among the immigrant population in the state."
"As on date, they are not into terrorism in a big way, but involved in gun running, fake currency rackets and drugs running. Some of them went to Bangladesh for training and are now lying low as sleeping agents of the ISI," he added.
He commented that of late, the level of coordination among security agencies from neighbouring states of Assam had improved a lot in respect of checking the inter-state movements of insurgents.
Lt Gen Chabbra said ULFA ultras tended to escape to insurgency-affected Tirap and Changlang districts of neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh to escape the pressure of security forces inside Assam.
He also ruled out the possibility