Banned ULFA(I)’s ‘operational commander’ arrested from Assam-Arunachal border

The Assam Police, in collaboration with the Assam Rifles and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), arrested Rupam Asom, the ‘operational commander’ of proscribed outfit United Liberation Front of Assam ( ULFA (I) ). He was arrested from a forest area near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border on May 24.
 

Operations are underway in the area in search of more cadres of the militant group, an official said.
 

Rupam, who was allegedly running the outfit's extortion racket in parts of Assam, was named in the NIA charge sheet in the killing of Bordumsa Police Station officer-in-charge Bhaskar Kalita in 2018.
 

Rupam and his team have been hiding on the interstate border and carrying out extortion activities, the officer said.
 

"Rupam Asom is the main person in the extortion activities in eastern Assam. We had information that he and his team were hiding in a jungle near the Assam-Arunachal border. Accordingly, an operation was launched on Friday night, and he was arrested," the officer said.
 

The police have launched a manhunt in the bordering areas to trace and apprehend other members of the banned ULFA (I) group, he added.