The Paresh Baruah faction of the proscribed outfit, ULFA (Independent), as a part of its recruitment drive across the State are now increasingly targeting child recruits.
This has come to light following the arrest of a minor and three youths at Bordumsa in Tinsukia district along Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. Police officials said a minor and the three youths planned to join the Paresh Baruah led faction of the rebel outfit.
Acting on an intelligence input, the minor and the three youths were arrested by Tinsukia police at Bormudsa when they were on their way to ULFA (I) bases at Eastern Nagaland.
Police officials said the arrested youths were identified as Sanjib Moran, 21, Nitya Moran, 20, and Tarun Moran, 24, and all of them are residents of Sadiya.
A top police official said the ULFA (I) leaders have lured minors from Kakopathar, Sadiya, Pengeri and Borduma area in Eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district to join the rebel outfit with the promise of money.
“Shocking facts of ULFA (I) recruiting minor has emerged recently. The ULFA (I) is recruiting school-going students and taking them to their bases in Myanmar. It is a fact that the outfit took at least 15 minors from Tinsukia district,” the official told Northeast Now.
Earlier in 2016, two minor students were arrested by police, who were allegedly engaged by ULFA (I) to trigger serial blasts in Tinsukia district on Independence Day.
The two school children planted bombs in Tinsukia district at the behest of ULFA (I) militants, police had said.
The ULFA (I), however, had denied the police claim and slammed the police for coming up with a “concocted story” to hide its failures.
Intelligence sources recently said the ULFA (I) has been going on the recruitment overdrive since the protest against Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, which seeks to grant citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis, gained momentum in the state in May this year.
Youths from Baksa and Nalbari districts in lower Assam and Golaghat, Charaideo, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia in upper Assam mainly between the age group 20 and 30 have been recruited over the past four months, an intelligence official had told Northeast Now.