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ULFA hijacking unit busted

Sushanta Talukdar

Police unearth plot by militants to strike at LGBI airport

Guwahati: The city police on Friday night arrested a member of the ‘plane hijacking unit’ of the United Liberation Front of Asom and his fiancée from a rented house in the Jalukbari area. They also unearthed a plot by the militant outfit to hijack a plane from the Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International (LGBI) airport at Borjhar here.

Self-styled ‘major’ Manoj Tamuli revealed that he, and other members of the unit, were imparted training by an Afghanistan-trained ULFA leader in a remote place of Baksa district close to the India-Bhutan border.

Inspector-General of Police (Special Branch) Khagen Sharma and City Senior Superintendent of Police V.K. Ramisetti told reporters that the police had prior intelligence about the hijacking unit and had issued a high alert for all airports. The police took all possible measures to thwart a hijack plan by the outfit, Mr. Sharma said.

Tamuli said the outfit had planned to hijack a plane from the LGBI airport and take it first to Thimpu and then to Nepal and finally to Karachi.

The IGP said the ULFA plan was backed by foreign intelligence agencies. After the major reverses suffered by the ULFA, the foreign agencies had come forward to train the outfit in new tactics.

Mr. Sharma said that after the 2003 crackdown in Bhutan the ULFA men were imparted training in use of improvised explosive devices such as Programmed Time Delay Device.

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