Delhi announces ULFA chief capture

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NEW DELHI, Dec 4 (bdnews24.com): India Friday formally announced arrest of Arabinda Rajkhowa, the chairman of the insurgent outfit United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), from near the country's border with Bangladesh at Dawki in its northeastern state of Meghalaya.
India's Border Security Force (BSF) detained Rajkhowa, his wife and two children from near the border outpost at Dawki. Also detained with him were his personal bodyguard, the deputy commander-in-chief of the ULFA's military wing, Raju Barua, and a few others.
A BSF official said that the border guards had spotted Rajkhowa and others roaming near the India-Bangladesh border. "They surrendered after being challenged by our men patrolling the border," he said.
Rajkhowa and others were later handed over to the police in Assam.
Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Indian government in New Delhi said that the ULFA leaders as well as the LeT operatives had been detained in Bangladesh and handed over to the BSF on the border later.
India and Bangladesh have not yet inked any bilateral extradition treaty. But Dhaka has recently accepted Delhi's proposal for a tacit understanding to track down and catch the fugitives of Indian law illegally staying in Bangladesh.
As per the understanding, Bangladeshi agencies would informally detain the insurgents and terrorists wanted by India, and hand over them to Indian BSF on the border instead of formally arresting them.
The tacit cooperation between Delhi and Dhaka had early last month resulted in the arrest of two ULFA leaders -- its 'finance secretary' Chitrabon Hazarika and 'foreign secretary' Shashadhar Choudhury -- by the BSF from near the Indo-Bangla border in Tripura, another state in the northeastern region of India.
The ULFA had then alleged that Hazarika and Choudhury had in fact been picked up by some unidentified men from a residential area in Dhaka and later handed over to the BSF.
No official of the Bangladesh government has so far officially confirmed reports published in Indian media stating that Rajkhowa had been detained in Dhaka or some where else in the country.
Bangladesh Home Minister Sahara Khatun Friday denied the arrest of Rajkhowa, as reported in the Indian media.
Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs of the Indian government said that Dhaka's tacit cooperation in detaining the ULFA leaders and LeT terrorists was being seen in Delhi as a good gesture by Dhaka ahead of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India later this month.
After the detention of the ULFA chairman and others, its military wing chief Paresh Barua is the only top leader of the outfit who is still absconding. Indian intelligence officials believe that Barua too was based in Dhaka, at least until recently.
However, an AP report from Gauhati, quoting unnamed Indian security officials, said the ULFA chairman was arrested days earlier in Bangladesh.
The report dismissed the Indian official account that the militants were detained as they wandered along a guarded border.