GUWAHATI: A startling revelation by two top Ulfa leaders, who are now in police custody, has corroborated what Union home secretary G K Pillaihad hinted about two weeks ago in New Delhi.Ulfa "foreign secretary" Sashadhar Choudhury and "finance secretary" Chitrabon Hazarika have told interrogators from the Special Operation Unit of Assam Police that their "commander-in-chief", Paresh Baruah, is not only procuring arms from Chinese manufacturers for Ulfa but is also selling them to National Democratic Front of Boroland, National Libertaion Front of Tripura, All Tripura Tiger Force and, more importantly, to Maoists operating outside the North-East. On November 8, Pillai had said, "Chinese are big smugglers... suppliers of small arms. I am sure that the Maoists also get them."
With Bangladesh under Sheikh Hasina mounting pressure on the outfit, Ulfa is desperately seeking shelter in China. Baruah has reportedly visited Yunnan province there thrice in the past two years. Choudhury and Hazarika said though the Chinese have not yet agreed to provide shelter, weapons have been obtained from suppliers based in that country.
Sources said Baruah has been acquiring weapons from a manufacturing unit headquartered in Beijing since 2007. This unit has been selling mostly small arms including the Chinese versions of AK-47s, AK-56s and AK-81s, NDM-86s, a version of Drugnov sniper rifles, and pistols.
The Ulfa "commander-in-chief" faces charges of smuggling weapons into Bangladesh. He had reportedly fled the neighbouring country sometime this April to one of Ulfa's camps in Myanmar after Bangladesh Police registered a case against him following the recovery of arms from the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Company Limited (CUFL) in April, 2004.
The haul considered the largest in the South Asian nation included 4,930 types of firearms, 27,020 grenades, 840 rocket launchers, 300 accessories of rocket launchers, 2,000 grenade launching tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11,40,520 bullets. All this had reportedly been purchased from China with the help of a UAE-based firm run by a Pakistani businessman and brought to Chittagong, the biggest Bangladeshi port.
Sources said Baruah had himself supervised the off-loading 10 truck-load of arms and ammunition meant for Ulfa. Bangladesh Police had later arrested three top ex-intelligence officials of that country in connection with the arms seizure.
With Bangladesh under Sheikh Hasina mounting pressure on the outfit, Ulfa is desperately seeking shelter in China. Baruah has reportedly visited Yunnan province there thrice in the past two years. Choudhury and Hazarika said though the Chinese have not yet agreed to provide shelter, weapons have been obtained from suppliers based in that country.
Sources said Baruah has been acquiring weapons from a manufacturing unit headquartered in Beijing since 2007. This unit has been selling mostly small arms including the Chinese versions of AK-47s, AK-56s and AK-81s, NDM-86s, a version of Drugnov sniper rifles, and pistols.
The Ulfa "commander-in-chief" faces charges of smuggling weapons into Bangladesh. He had reportedly fled the neighbouring country sometime this April to one of Ulfa's camps in Myanmar after Bangladesh Police registered a case against him following the recovery of arms from the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Company Limited (CUFL) in April, 2004.
The haul considered the largest in the South Asian nation included 4,930 types of firearms, 27,020 grenades, 840 rocket launchers, 300 accessories of rocket launchers, 2,000 grenade launching tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11,40,520 bullets. All this had reportedly been purchased from China with the help of a UAE-based firm run by a Pakistani businessman and brought to Chittagong, the biggest Bangladeshi port.
Sources said Baruah had himself supervised the off-loading 10 truck-load of arms and ammunition meant for Ulfa. Bangladesh Police had later arrested three top ex-intelligence officials of that country in connection with the arms seizure.
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