ULFA-I
Representative photo.

The ULFA-I on Sunday claimed that an encounter took place between Army and the outfit at Khandu and Mungkam village along Assam- Arunachal Pradesh border with casualties of Army personnel.

However, the Army has denied any such encounter with the United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I).

The ULFA-I, in a statement issued by Lt. Joy Asom of the outfit’s publicity department on Sunday said: “The face-to-face firing incident that took place between the colonial security forces of (9 Rajputana Regiment) and soldiers of the United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent), United Liberation Force of Asom at Khandu and Mungkam village located at the so-called border of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.”

“In the incident, we, ULFA Independent claims severe casualty of more than 4 soldiers from the 9 Rajputana Regiment whereas no casualty from United Liberation Front of Asom Independent,” the ULFA-I statement claimed.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://nenow.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ULFA-release.pdf” title=”ULFA release”]

However, a senior Army official said, “There was no encounter between ULFA (I) and Army. The encounter took place between NSCN cadres and Army. It’s a publicity stunt of ULFA(I) because they try to become the media headlines.”

Police recently arrested two ULFA-I cadres, suspected to be involved in the bomb blast on Republic Day at Teokghat in Upper Assam’s Charaideo district.

The cadres were identified as 26-year-old Manas Jyoti Padmavat alias Bastab Jyoti Asom and 30-year-old Chow Lakhi Longno alias Rubul Asom.

Bastab Jyoti Asom joined the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in 2009 while Rubul Asom joined the militant outfit in 2017.

Charaideo superintendent of police Anand Mishra said the ULFA-I cadres were arrested in a joint operation carried out by the police and Army.

Avik Chakraborty is Northeast Now Correspondent in Dibrugarh. He can be reached at: [email protected]