The National Investigation Agency or NIA has filed a charge sheet against fugitive ULFA-I chief Paresh Baruah and five others, accusing them of plotting to attack the Army camps in Assam as part of an anti-Bharat agenda. The charges pertain to a 2023 terror attack orchestrated by the banned terrorist group, targeting an Army camp in Assam.
According to the NIA, the Myanmar-based United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent or ULFA-I conspired and executed the attack on November 22, 2023. Two youths on motorcycles hurled grenades at the Army camp in Kakopathar, Tinsukia district, though fortunately, no one was injured. This attack was intended to be part of a broader plan to inflict harm on army personnel through similar assaults across the State.
“In its charge sheet filed today before the NIA special court in Guwahati, the agency has named Paresh Baruah, the self-styled chief of the banned organisation, along with SS Brigadier Arunudoy Dohutia, SS 2nd Lt Saurav Asom, SS Captain Abhijit Gogoi alias Aisheng Asom, and two others, identified as Parag Borah and Bijoy Moran, as the key conspirators and executors of the attack,” the NIA stated.
Parag Borah and Bijoy Moran were apprehended in early December last year in Tinsukia district, while the other accused remain at large. The charge sheet, which uncovers the extensive conspiracy orchestrated by ULFA-I’s top leaders “from across the international border,” includes charges under the Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and the Explosive Substances Act.
The NIA’s investigation, which took over the case from Assam Police, revealed that Paresh Baruah and Arunudoy Dohutia masterminded the plot, deploying Suresh Gogoi and another cadre to conduct multiple attacks on army camps in Assam. Abhijeet Gogoi coordinated the planning and execution of the attack, collaborating with Bijoy Moran, an overground worker for ULFA-I, to recruit local youths for the operation.
The NIA also discovered that ULFA-I has been using social media to recruit vulnerable youths, training them for terrorist activities. The organization’s efforts are aimed at furthering its extremist and separatist ideology through violent means.
Ongoing investigations seek to identify additional conspirators and associates involved in the attack, with the aim of exposing the full extent of the terror network.
