In a joint operation, the 9th Battalion Rajputana Rifles and police nabbed an ULFA-I linkman from Joypur area of Dibrugarh district on Wednesday night.
The linkman, identified as 34-year-old Mohammad Shamshul Shaikh, is a resident of Samuguritai in Namrup.
“We got a specific information about the presence of an ULFA-I linkman and launched a joint operation and successfully apprehended the linkman at Ballimara while he was coming out of his friend’s house,” army sources said.
The sources also said, “After apprehension he was handed over to Joypur Police Station for further investigation. An FIR has been lodged against him at the police station.”
Extortion note and one mobile with SIM card were also recovered from the possession of the linkman.
Sources claimed, “In the past two months, the anti-talk ULFA faction has been trying to generate money through extortion but they have failed in it due to timely action taken by the security forces.”
“Generally, ULFA-I generates money through extortion in the tea gardens of Upper Assam, but the demonetization has badly hit the rebel group and now they are trying everything possible to make their presence felt in Upper Assam so that it can help them in extorting money from the industries,” police source said.
Meanwhile, security forces comprising Margherita-based 13 Assam Rifles and Bordumsa-based 23 Coy Punjab Regiment nabbed two suspected NSCN-K over-ground workers at Bordumsa Kherem Pissa in Changlang district on Wednesday.
According to an FIR lodged in this regard, the two NSCN-K workers were nabbed when the security forces were conducting anti-insurgency operation in the belt after receiving tip-off regarding militants taking shelter in the militancy- infested belt along Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.
The duo has been identified as Choja Gam Singpho and Duleng Singpho of Kherem Pissa.
“They were carrying an intense extortion drive in the area besides serving the ulterior designs of the militant origination,” said army sources involved in the operation.
The security forces also recovered Rs 56,830 in cash and 220 grams of contraband Brown sugar and few mobile handsets from the possession of the apprehended NSCN-K workers.
“They were also drug peddlers in the area,” sources claimed.