Conflict

Assamese software engineer joins ULFA(I), uploads video

Abhijeet Gogoi in the video that he posted on Friday.

A software engineer from Assam’s Dibrugarh has joined United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent), police said Saturday, as per a report by Indian Express.

The ULFA (I) have been suspected by the police to be responsible for the killing of five Bengali-speaking farmers in Tinsukia district in November. However, the outfit has denied involvement in the case.

The engineer, 27-year-old Abhijeet Gogoi claimed in a video on social media platforms that he had picked up arms to “save the Assamese community”.

“Whatever is happening in Assam, is unfortunate. Youngsters should come forward to do something for the community. If we don’t come out to save ourselves, then no one will come to save us. I invite young generation to come forward for the community,” Gogoi is purportedly heard saying in the video. He also claimed that “indigenous people” were facing trouble because of migrants in neighbouring Tripura.

Gogoi, in the video, has claimed to have graduated as an engineer from SRM University in Chennai in 2012. He said that he was an MBA and had worked in multiple countries, including Singapore and Australia. Before joining the militant outfit, Gogoi claimed, he was working in Bengaluru.

Citing senior police officers at at Sadiya in Tinsukia, IE reported that as per available records, Gogoi had appeared for his matriculation in 2006-07 from here and had left the district by 2008. Dibrugarh police said around two years ago Gogoi was living for a brief period with some of his relatives in Moran who had registered a case against him.

Apart from Gogoi, another recruit Pankaj Pratim Dutta, previously a local leader of the All Assam Student Union in Golaghat district also uploaded a video after joining the outfit.

On condition of anonymity, a senior police officer compared the trend of uploading videos to “just like militants do in Kashmir”. New recruits of outfits often upload videos on social media explaining the rationale behind their joining it.

Special DGP of Assam police Special Branch, Pallab Bhattacharyya has earlier said that the opposition to the BJP’s proposal to pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the state has added a “fresh lease of life” to the activities of the ULFA(I), the report stated.

According to the report, since September 1, police say, at least 11 people from Tinsukia and Udalguri districts have joined the banned outfit, while another 11 have surrendered. A senior police officer in Tinsukia – considered to be a hotbed of ULFA(I) – said that in 2017 and 2018, at least nine youths joined the outfit from the district, while another 22 had been “brought back” by the police, the report said.

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