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Guwahati: The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) on Thursday issued a fresh threat to Hindi-speaking and other outsiders, asking them to stay away from the State during its conflict with the security forces.

The militant outfit also claimed responsibility for the recent massacre in upper Assam, in which 62 persons — most of them migrant Bihari workers — were killed.

The Cabinet directed the administration to beef up security measures to thwart any fresh strike on Hindi-speaking people and other soft targets, sources said.

Government spokesman Himanta Biswa Sharma said that during a routine meeting Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi apprised the Council of Ministers of the law and order situation in the wake of the massacre and of the preparations for the National Games. The sources, however, claimed that the Cabinet discussed at length the fresh ULFA threat.

ULFA allegation

In the latest edition of its fortnightly mouthpiece Freedom, the ULFA alleged that the Army's Bihar Regiment killed five of its members and demolished the houses of innocent people in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia on January 1 and 2 after collecting information from Hindi-speaking people.

"Again we appeal to those people coming from the colonial India to stay away during this conflict period. We also appeal to all concerned, whether Hindi-speaking or not, not to cooperate with the occupational forces to carry on oppression and repression in Asom so as to ruin the national liberation struggle," the mouthpiece, issued through e-mail, said.

It stated the ULFA had asked the Hindi-speaking people many times to leave Assam as soon as possible as "conflict is running," and warned that "action may happen at any time."

AASU criticises ULFA

The All-Assam Students Union (AASU) accused the ULFA of not only remaining silent on the burning problem of infiltration of illegal migrants from Bangladesh but also taking help from foreign forces.

Reacting to a statement, issued to a section of the local media, in which ULFA chief Paresh Barua accused the students union of siding with the "Indian state," AASU adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattcharyya said the militant outfit was silent on the influx of illegal migrants as its leaders were based in Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Wednesday's blast here has gone up to three with two persons succumbing to their injuries in hospital.

On Thursday, the police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse angry protesters who blocked GNB Road with the body of a blast victim.

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