Mr Rajkhowa, who is flagged by an Interpol Red Corner notice, issued at the request India’s law enforcement agencies, has been on the run since 1992, and is believed to have lived in hiding in Myanmar, Bhutan and Bangladesh. He surrendered to Indian border security guards after he was detained last week in Dhaka, and subsequently ejected by Bangladeshi authorities, reportedly under pressure from the Indian government.
Ulfa has waged an armed rebellion in Assam for an independent state since 1979. The 30-year insurgency has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
Ulfa, believed to be one of the most recalcitrant separatist groups in India’s north-east, is said to have been weakened in recent years because of increased pressure from Indian authorities which have chased down cadres, both militarily and through diplomatic channels, with neighbouring countries such as Myanmar and Bangladesh where the group is suspected of having bases.
The Indian government’s recent aggressive approach towards Ulfa is symptomatic of a shift in the country’s policy of tackling terrorism and militancy. India is the most attacked nation on earth after war-torn Iraq, according to the Worldwide Incidents Tracking System. Beyond Islamist militants from neighbouring Pakistan, it faces a major security risk from myriad home-grown insurgent groups on its own soil.
After the Congress party was voted back to power in May, the new home minister, P Chidambaram, made pursuing Naxalities (India’s Maoist rebels active across 22 of India’s 28 states) and insurgent groups in the country’s north-east his chief priority.
“The general perception in the government is that if Sri Lanka, a tiny island, can eradicate the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelum], why can’t we?” said an official from India’s Intelligence Bureau, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
Ulfa was banned by India in 1990 and classified as a terrorist group. The US state department lists the group under the category of “other groups of concern”.
The Ulfa does not consider itself a secessionist movement, claiming that Assam was never a part of India. The issue of national identity is a key problem confronting Assamese people, the group claims, and it views its armed rebellion as a “freedom struggle”.
It routinely orchestrates brutal killings, kidnapping of tea garden owners, and extortions from local businessmen and government contractors. Its hit squads have become increasingly belligerent in recent years, killing security personnel, and bombing economic targets like crude oil pipelines, freight trains and crowded markets.
The Indian government accuses Ulfa of forging links with the Inter-Services Intelligence, the spy agency of Pakistan, and accuses it of waging a proxy war in India at its behest.
The detention of Arabinda Rajkhowa is a positive development,” said Sajjan Gohel, a British security analyst with the London-based Asia-Pacific Foundation, an independent intelligence and security think tank. “The Ulfa leader has successfully orchestrated an insurgency in Assam that has created economic, social and political problems.”
This development has raised hopes of peace talks with the banned group.
“[Now] there is a real possibility for a Ulfa ceasefire – one that will allow the people of Assam to start to rebuild their lives,” Mr Gohel said. But even in incarceration, Mr Rajkhowa was defiant.
“Talks are not possible with handcuffs,” he told the Indian media while being taken to court yesterday. “I haven’t surrendered, nor will I ever willingly surrender. Under these circumstances, peace talks are not possible.”
Paresh Barua, Ulfa’s self-styled commander in chief, in an e-mail statement sent to the Indian media from an undisclosed location, appealed to Mr Rajkhowa to not to fall into the “trap” of the Indian government.
“I appeal to you to declare your present stand keeping in mind the sacrifice of 12,000 martyrs who laid down their lives for an independent Assam as well as the people of Assam who crave for independence,” he said in his e-mail message written in the Assamese language.
“The Indian government has ‘hatched a dirty politics’ in the name of initiating dialogue with Ulfa and we demand that the Indian government should desist from such an ‘evil practice’.”
Mr Barua denied that his group had split and reiterated that he would remain averse to dialogue until the Indian government was ready to discuss the issue of providing “sovereignty for Assam”.
The Indian government has rejected the offer.
“Ulfa is in disarray today,” P Chidambaram told the Indian parliament last week.
“Our government is prepared to talk to Ulfa provided they abjure violence and there is no demand for sovereignty.”