United Liberation Front of Assam - History

History

The ULFA was founded on April 7, 1979 at the Ahom King in Sibsagar by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU). The founders included Paresh Baruah, Arabinda Rajkhowa, Anup Chetia, Pradip Gogoi, Bhadreshwar Gohain and Budheswar Gogoi. The organization's purpose was to engage in an armed struggle to form a socialist Assam.

Recruiting for the front did not begin until 1983. Soon after it finished recruitment in 1984, it began to seek out training and arms procurement from other groups such as the Kachin Independence Army(KIA) and the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland(NSCN). In 1986 it launched a fund raising “campaign” across India by way of extortion. It then began to set up camps in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh but was soon banned by New Delhi on November 7, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967.

In less than a decade of its formation, the Ulfa emerged as one of the most powerful and violent insurgent outfit in Southeast Asia, largely because of the immense popularity it enjoyed during the first decade of its struggle as well as its economic power which in turn helped it in bolstering its military capabilities. In the early 1990s, ULFA launched an aggressive campaign with victims such as security forces, political opponents, and blasting rail links. In July 1991 the front captured and held 14 people for ransom, included in the abductees was an engineer and a national of the Soviet Union. From the 1990s on the ULFA have continued to carry out terrorist attacks.