On raising day, ULFA tries to blow up train

The banned United Liberation Front of Asom hoisted its flag in many parts of rural Assam on the occasion of its 'Raising Day' on Monday even as the army averted the outfit's bid to trigger an explosion in Namrup railway station in Upper Assam targeting the Kamrup Express that runs between Tinsukia and Howrah (Kolkata) via Guwahati.

The army informed that a major disaster could be averted by its personnel who recovered an improvised explosive device strapped to a bicycle and planted in Namrup railway station in Dibrugarh district of Upper Assam in the wee hours on Monday.

The Kamrup Express was scheduled to arrive at the station in early hours of the day.

An army spokesman informed the 44th field regiment of the army apprehended three ULFA cadres -- Putul Gogoi, Nabajyoti Gogoi and Jatin Gogoi -- from Borhat area of Tinsukia district on Sunday night.

Based on their confession, the army recovered a bomb kept on a bicycle from Namrup railway station.

Meanwhile, the separatist militant group managed to unfurl its green and white flag with a red rising sun in the middle at several places in Golaghat, Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Sivsagar, Barpeta, Nagaon, Tinsukia, Nalbari, Bongaigaon Chirang, Udalguri and Tinsukia districts.

The flags were hoisted in educational institutions, panchayat office and public grounds.

Police later seized the ULFA flag from many parts of the state on being informed by the local people.

The chairman of ULFA Arabinda Rajkhowa, in his 'Raising Day' statement that was e-mailed to the media in Guwahati, called upon all sections of the people to join forces with the outfit in its "bid to restore sovereignty of Assam and its indigenous people."

He said over 11,000 ULFA cadres had so far been killed by Indian security forces during the last three decades.

The fugitive ULFA leader demanded that all its leaders now lodged in different jails in India and abroad should be treated as political prisoners and released.

ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia alias Golap Baruah is now lodged in jail in Bangladesh while many of its senior leaders including vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi and adviser Bhimkanta Buragohain are spending their term in Guwahati jail.

He demanded that the government of India provide information about 16 ULFA men who had gone missing since a December 2003 'joint operation' by the Royal Bhutan Army and the Indian Army to demolish the ULFA base from neighbouring Bhutan.

The ULFA was raised on April 7, 1979, at the rampart of Rong Ghar, a 18th century sports pavillion set up by the Ahom Dynasty that ruled Assam for over 600 years from the 12th Century AD.

The historic monument is located by the National Highway 37, near the oil town of Sivasagar in Upper Assam.