ULFA Threatens to Attack Bangladeshi Immigrants

The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has threatened to attack ‘illegal migrants’ from neighbouring country Bangladesh, said reports.

“I appeal to the people of Assam to free all our lands occupied by the illegal migrants from Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. If these illegals resist, they will be attacked,” said Paresh Barua, ULFA’s military wing chief in an e-mailed message to the media.

The statement came days after outfit’s top leadership was arrested in Dhaka and handed over to India.

In the past, ULFA militants had assaulted settlers of Bengali origin, of them leaders of minority groups.

ULFA has been fighting for a separate Assamese homeland since 1979.

Warning of a series of attacks on vital installations and security forces all across Assam, Barua said that those who killed ULFA members would face ‘dire consequences’.

ULFA was born out of popular discontent in Assam about illegal migration from Bangladesh between 1979 and 1985.

But after it found shelter in Bangladesh in the early 1990s, the group stopped attacking Bengali settlers, although it continued to attack Hindi-speaking settlers who have come to live in Assam from other parts of India.

Now that Bangladesh’s Awami League-led government has cracked down on ULFA rebels and handed over several of its top leaders to India, the rebel outfit is once again threatening to target migrants from Bangladesh.