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25 August 2024

The Threat of Insurgency in India’s Assam Continues

Sanjay Sarmah

On August 15, an email citing bomb threats was sent to several media houses by the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam Independent (ULFA-I) group led by Paresh Baruah. The group claimed that they had planted bombs at 24 locations across Assam, which were supposed to explode between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. on August 15, India’s Independence Day. However, fortunately, due to what ULFA-I called “technical failure,” the bombs did not explode.

Following this, the state police was soon mobilized into action and multiple special investigation teams were formed. Upon inspection, IED-like material along with some chemicals and circuits were recovered from some 10 sites among those listed by ULFA-I. Since then, two of those cases have been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by the state police and a few arrests have also been made.

This incident poses a significant setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which had claimed to make Assam an insurgency-free state. Additionally, it also raises several questions about the credibility of the state’s intelligence agencies. The Press Trust of India reported that the “police had no clue on the existence of the bombs until ULFA-I itself informed about these, despite the entire state being on high alert on the occasion of Independence Day celebrations.”

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