The army in coordination with Assam Police has intensified operation against the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam along Assam-Meghalaya inter-state boundary areas in western Assam to prevent insurgents from sneaking into Assam from forest areas in Meghalaya’s Garo Hills to carry out hit-and-run operation inside Assam territory.
An ULFA militant was killed after a heavy exchange of fire with a search party of the army at Khardanga in Goalpara district along the inter-state boundary in an encounter with a search party of the army Tuesday.
The slain ULFA militant has been identified as self-styled sergeant of the outfit’s ‘western command’ Niyor Asom alias Babul Ali.
The banned ULFA in a statement issued today has declared the slain militant a ‘martyr’ who has made supreme sacrifice after giving a valiant fight to Indian Army to uphold the cause of the ‘revolution of ULFA aimed at liberating Assam from the clutches of ‘colonial India’.
The Garo Hills areas of Meghalaya which has a long boundary with Bangladesh is used by the ULFA as a transit corridor to cross over to Bangladesh to escape the heat of Army operation in Western Assam areas.