Rajkhowa clips wings of Paresh
Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa has finally clipped the wings of commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah by amending the outfit's constitution to accommodate a new, but all powerful committee, with cadres from the armed wing that Baruah had controlled single-handedly for the last three decades.
Top armed wing leader in this committee is Baruah's deputy Raju Baruah, who was arrested along with Rajkhowa, in Bangladesh in 2009.
The new committee -- Central and Naba Niraman Kendra Steering Committee -- will oversee every detail of the peace process--from managing the rehabilitation camps (naba nirman kendras) where the cadres would stay to organising rehab programmes.
"This committee has 35 members and majority of them have been drawn from the armed group controlled by the commander-in-chief from various battalions out in the field," a top pro-talks Ulfa leader told TOI.
The committee will be an independent one, which will report only to the general council. Among the prominent members are assistant general secretary in charge of finance Chitrabon Hazarika, who is form the political wing. The other important members are Gulit Das, Haren Phukan and Phanindra Medhi alias Lebu, who once handled all of Baruah's finances in Bangladesh. Lebu has now been made the chief office secretary and secretary to Rajkhowa.
The committee has top leaders from the 28th battalion, Mrinal Hazarika, Jiten Dutta, Prabal Neog, a fomer commandant of the battalion, commandant of 709th battalion Hira Sarania, former commandant of 27th battalion Pallab Saikia, who has been appointed now as the central coordinator, said the pro-talks rebel leader.
Soon after Rajkhowa approved the committee, Baruah reorganised his small bunch of men, who are still loyal to him. According to police, Baruah has about 15 to 17 men inside the state, about a dozen scattered in Bangladesh and 100 to 120 rebels in Myanmar. Baruah has renamed his group in Myanmar as Rongili, Lakhimi in Bangladesh and the group in Majuli as Kopili. While these three names are identification codes, Lakhimi refers to the 1st battalion, Rongili 2nd battalion and Kopili the 3rd battalion.
Prior to the peace process, the outfit had the 109th battalion in Garo Hills and Goalpara, 709th battalion in lower Assam, 27th battalion in Karbi Anglong and the 28th battalion in Myanmar.
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