GUWAHATI: Law-enforcing agencies in Assam, battling Ulfa insurgency for decades, may have another big security problem at hand with Maoist rebels on the run from central and south India setting up base on the outskirts of Guwahati city.
Days after Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said Ulfa (I) had recruited 47 boys and girls into its ranks and blamed social media for its propaganda, a worried city police commissioner Harmeet Singh said on Saturday said they have evidence to show that Maoists are trying to establish a base in the city fringes.
On April 7, police arrested a hardcore cadre, Hriday Kalita alias Joy alias Suresh Kalita from Kamrup district and learnt all about the Maoist plans to infiltrate in Assam in newer areas, police said.
“After the Maoists incurred losses in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra Maoist belts, they were in search of new areas to spread. Hriday Kalita was part of Kanchan da’s team (arrested Maoist leader),” said Singh, who also holds the charge of ADGP (Border).
“We will keep going after them and we will keep catching them,” Singh said. The police commissioner urged city residents to inform details of families to whom they have rented their houses as Guwahati was expanding fast.
On March 7, police nabbed Maoist leader Arun Kumar Bhattacharjee alias Kanchanda, a strategist. He was arrested along with a member of the Assam state organising committee of the banned outfit.
Based on inputs from Bhattacharjee, Hriday Kalita was arrested, who was trying to spread Maoist ideology in the chapori (sand bars) areas of Kamrup, police said. Chaporis are located in the riverine areas and mostly inhabited by the minority community.
Commissioner Singh informed that police are examining the associates of Kalita and if they find links with Maoism or Left wing extremism, the associates will also be apprehended.
"Hriday Kalita was a member of two organisations - Gana Sanskriti Manch and Progressive Students Youth Federation. Both are extreme Left front organizations," Singh said, informing that incrementing Maoist literature and some devices have been seized from his possession. He added that these are being investigated forensically and scientifically.
Hriday was popular as a tutor of school students among rural villagers in Kukurmara area of Kamrup district. Police said he, along with his associates, was continuing cultural activities and encouraging selected youths from economically weaker backgrounds to inculcate Left ideology.
As a part of the investigation against Maoists, in Barak valley of south Assam, NIA raided a house at Sonakhira tea garden locality in Karimganj district last week. One Raju Oraon (40) and his wife Pinki Oraon (35) were arrested in the operation.
Another absconding Maoist woman cadre was arrested by NIA from Naharkatia in Dibrugarh district early this week. The cadre, identified as Reema Orang alias Saraswati, was a resident of Mahaltal village of Assam's Cachar district. She reportedly joined CPI (Maoist) in 2014 through the outfit's political and cultural wing.
