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North East insurgency : Ram, dead or alive ?

	July 09, 2007

In a dramatic turn of events, the Assam police on July 6 said the abducted Food Corporation of India (FCI) official P.C. Ram was still alive and the body recovered at Anandpur in Baksa district on June 30 was not his.



Reacting to media reports about the recovery of the body, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) said that the official was in its custody. Inspector-General of Police (Special Branch) Khagen Sharma said that the family now got evidence of his being alive. The sources said Dr. Ram spoke to his family members over telephone.



On Tuesday, a caller identifying himself as Hira Sarania, commander of the ULFA’s 709 Battalion, called up a section of local newspapers in Guwahati to claim that Dr. Ram was in the outfit’s custody. But, he would not be released until ULFA leaders Pallab Saikia and Mrinal Hazarika were released, Sarania was quoted as saying.



He claimed that the body that was dug out from a pit on a riverbank in Baksa district last weekend was actually that of an “Army informer.”





Ram ‘calls’ on his family



Police quoted the FCI executive director’s befuddled son Pravin as saying that the man whose call he took around 4.15 pm on July 6 sounded “quite like my father”. A senior police officer involved in the investigation into the abduction and `murder’ case said the man who could or would be Ram even spoke to Pravin’s mother Padmavati and his sister Nirja. Both, he said, were almost convinced that the voice of the caller matched that of Ram.



The “voice” told the family that they should not worry about his diabetes as his abductors had arranged for “some kind of medical treatment.”



Pravin had confirmed on Sunday, July 1, that the body was that of his father and took it to New Delhi for cremation. As many as 22 people, including Ram’s FCI colleagues and his adopted daughter June Murmu, had identified the body.



The latest twist in the tale has forced the police to opt for a DNA test of nail and skin samples retained from the body confirmed as Ram’s.



Additional superintendent of police Rajen Singh said the FCI official’s family requested a DNA test, too, after hearing of ULFA’s claim that he was alive and in its custody. “A member of the special investigating team will be leaving for Hyderabad with samples of skin and nails for tests at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics.”



The police top brass on July 7 went into a huddle at the behest of the Union Home Ministry to discuss the “confusion” arising out of ULFA’s claim.



Another police official said it might be a plan by ULFA to extract more money. Ram’s family paid Rs 16 lakh to the militant group as the first installment of the ransom.



An ULFA militant called the family on the very day Ram’s body was found to demand the second installment.



The FCI head-office in New Delhi demanded a full-fledged inquiry “to bring out the truth.”





Extra cover for PSU staff



While the “murder” of P.C. Ram after two-and-a-half months in ULFA captivity is now shrouded with mystery, the incident has made the Government realise that officials of all public sector units in Assam are potential ULFA targets and need extra protection.



This message was sent out to the civil and police heads of all districts after an emergency security review against the backdrop of the Ram incident. Dispur received a similar order from Delhi.



“Delhi is of the view that ULFA is likely to carry out more such abductions, if only to embarrass the Government,” an official said.



He also said Delhi was not interested in a dialogue with ULFA at the moment and had asked Dispur to go all out in its offensive against the militant group. “All districts have been asked to hold security review meetings at regular intervals to assess the threat to officials (of PSUs).”



The focus will be on upgrading the category of security for PSU officials based in remote areas and the ULFA strongholds of Upper Assam.



Police sources said operations in Lower Assam were geared to arrest or kill Sarania, believed to be the mastermind of the plot to abduct Ram for ransom.



Police officials involved in the investigation into Ram’s killing said Sarania has been planning and co-ordinating all subversive activities in Lower Assam, including blasts in Guwahati. “He is the man we want now,” a senior official said.



The Government has announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for authentic information about Sarania’s whereabouts.





Mamoni reveals her ‘guilt’ - ‘I could not help Ram’



The “death” of P.C. Ram at the hands of his ULFA captors has left writer Mamoni Raisom Goswami nursing the guilt of not being able to answer his family’s cry for help.



She said Ram’s son, Pravin, had telephoned her several times with a request to put in a word with the ULFA leadership.



“But my hands were tied...I did not know how to contact the leadership,” said Goswami, on whom the Government has vested the responsibility of meeting ULFA leaders in hiding to broker peace talks.



The writer said Ram’s “death” was a “personal failure” and that she would have to live with it for the rest of her life.





Anti-ULFA group in war for peace



Meanwhile, a newly formed anti-ULFA organisation, Assam Public Works, has launched its crusade against sinister and terrorist activities of ULFA. The organisation which had earlier conducted a referendum that showed virtually no support in the State for ULFA’s violent strategy and claim to “sovereignty”, took its campaign to the streets of the capital city, Guwahati. Protesters shouted slogans against ULFA leaders and their “foreign mentors”, calling them “vain in their attitude and inhuman in their acts.”



The organisation openly distributed leaflets among people on the streets of the city, highlighting how ULFA has become a pawn in the hands of the ISI and Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Field Intelligence.



Members of Assam Public Works include the kith and kin of ULFA militants and family members of people who have been killed by the banned group over the years.



The organisation’s leader, Abhijit Sarma, said he and his colleagues would take their “war” against ULFA to every nook and corner of the State. “Our members will distribute leaflets in every town, every village, every college, every school....We plan to cover all households in the State.”



On the use of Hindu and Muslim symbols, Sarma said it was to accentuate the State’s tradition of communal amity, “which ULFA is trying to disturb at the behest of its fanatical mentors”.



The beginning of the campaign against ULFA coincided with a scathing attack by AGP (Pragatisheel) leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for maintaining that Ram was safe without being sure whether he was alive.





Naga raiders attack three Assam villages



The decades old territorial dispute between Assam and Nagaland came to the fore again last week when armed Naga extremists raided three Assam villages on July 5 in the manner of medieval invaders lusting for new territories. The 45-minute raid left a trail of two bodies, charred cattle corpses, razed houses and strained relations between two Governments that have idled over their boundary dispute for nearly four decades.



Official sources said the encroachers entered Assam through the unguarded inter-State border in Sivasagar district with war cries on their lips and targeted Sonapur, Dhekiajuri and Borholla villages.



“There would have been more deaths and injuries had villagers not fled their homes after hearing war cries at a distance. The raiders were in a murderous mood,” said Abdul Gafar Ali of Sonapur village.



The three villages are inhabited mostly by Nepali and tea tribe-settlers, as well as Muslims who were drawn to the area by the fertile land. The combined population of the three villages is around 2,000.





AASU retaliates, chokes Naga lifelines



Two Nagaland districts dependent on Assam for supplies are paying the price for the havoc wrought by Naga raiders on three border villages on July 5.



Mokokchung and Mon felt the first pinch of retaliation when the All Assam Students’ Union began blocking trucks and other vehicles headed for the two districts through Sivasagar and Jorhat. Kushal Dutta, president of the Sivasagar unit of the AASU, said all five routes leading to Nagaland had been “sealed” and that the economic blockade would continue indefinitely.



Chief minister Tarun Gogoi deputed three senior ministers to visit the villages and asked the Sivasagar administration to provide relief to the residents.



On the other hand, Mokokchung deputy commissioner Abhisekh Singh sent an SOS to his counterparts in Sivasagar and Jorhat in anticipation of a food shortage. “Since supply of essentials - from food items to fuel - to Mokokchung and Mon comes through Assam, we are sure to face a shortage,” he said.



Singh said the Mokokchung administration had already instituted an inquiry into the raid on Assam villages and registered a case at Tuli police station. He asssured that the guilty would be brought to book.





The boundary dispute between Assam and Nagaland has been festering since 1968, when Nagaland police attacked Assamese villagers at the Doyang reserve forest. A similar incident occurred at Rengma reserve forest of Karbi Anglong on January 5, 1979. The worst clash was on June 4, 1985, when over 100 people died in firing between Assam and Nagaland police at Merapani. That incident led to the States signing an interim agreement to maintain status quo on the boundary.