Guwahati, Feb 17 : Several tea garden owners in Upper Assam have been forced to take new mobile connections in recent times because of continuous “harassment” by a local Ulfa leader over phone.
The caller, Rupantar Kakoti, has been asking the planters to pay to Ulfa coffers.
A planter in the tea-rich Sonari belt of Sivasagar district, who changed his mobile number following constant calls from Kakoti, said: “He tells me that since I am an Assamese I should pay to Ulfa in their struggle for Assam’s freedom.”
Another planter said he, more often than not, kept his mobile switched off. “I have taken another mobile number but I don’t know for how long I can keep it confidential.”
Police sources said Kakoti was operating in Sivasagar for the past two months.
Sources in the Assam Tea Planters’ Association said the phone calls started about two months back. “But there has been a quantum leap in the frequency of the calls over the last fortnight. We have not received any official complaint, which is understandable, but it is true that a person called Rupantar Kakoti has been calling up garden owners demanding money in the name of Ulfa,” one of them said.
Army sources also confirmed that a senior leader of the B company of Ulfa’s 28 battalion, Rupantar, has been operating with a 16-member group along the state’s border with Nagaland.
“These militants are helped by linkmen to procure phone numbers of businessmen and to distribute extortion notices,” an official based at Maibella army camp said over phone. Several traps have been laid to nail Kakoti, but he and his group cross over to Nagaland, making it difficult to catch them.
“The area this group has been operating in is inaccessible. By the time we come to know that they are taking shelter in a particular area, they are gone,” he added.
During one such operation late last month, Kakoti and his group not only managed to escape but also shot dead two policemen while fleeing.
The police said the group was trying to terrorise planters by planting bombs near garden factories.
Another Sonari-based planter said it was unfortunate that Ulfa had started targeting planters in their quest for money. “The industry has just started coming out of a long recession. Many planters will have to close down their gardens if we have to pay Ulfa,” he added.
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