HT Correspondent
DIBRUGARH, Dec 2: The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) suffered another setback as two Myanmar-trained cadres surrendered before security forces in Arunachal Pradesh’s Namsai district on Tuesday.
The surrendered militants, identified as Bhargab Hazarika alias Ban Asom and Astitva Axom, were later handed over to Tinsukia Police for interrogation and further legal procedures.
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SSP Tinsukia Mayank Kumar confirmed the development, describing it as “a positive development in our ongoing efforts to neutralise insurgent activities.”
Following his surrender, Bhargab Hazarika, a resident of Dibrugarh district, assisted security forces in a major arms recovery.
He led personnel to a hideout in Nongtaw Khampti village, where a cache of weapons was recovered, including an MQ-81 rifle, 153 live rounds of ammunition and one rifle grenade.
Bhargab was part of a seven-member ULFA-I group involved in an encounter with the Assam Rifles in the same village on October 21, during which one militant, Iwon Asom, was killed.
The surrender comes close on the heels of the high-profile surrender of ULFA-I’s self-styled ‘major general’ Arunodoi Dohutia, alias Bijit Gogoi, on November 23. Security observers view these successive surrenders as an indication of mounting pressure from counter-insurgency operations and growing disillusionment among militants, a trend seen as encouraging for long-term peace in the region.
