NIA arrests key ULFA-I operative for planting explosive devices in Guwahati-OxBig News Network

The National Investigation Agency on Monday arrested a key operative of the banned terrorist outfit ULFA (I) for planting improvised explosive devices in Guwahati, Assam during this year’s Independence Day celebration.

NIA teams, with the active support of Assam Police, carried out searches at the house of Jahnu Baruah alias Arnab Axom in Dibrugarh in an intelligence-based operation in the early hours of this morning, an official statement said.

Several incriminating materials, including digital devices, were seized during the searches and are currently under examination, it said.

Jahnu Baruah was summoned to local police establishment for further examination.

The accused, during preliminary investigation, confessed to his involvement in planting four of the 11 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that were recovered by the state police during the I-Day celebrations, said the statement issued by the NIA.

The IEDs had been planted as part of the military protest and I-Day boycott call by Paresh Baruah, self-styled commander-in-chief of United Liberation Front of Asom- Independent or ULFA(I), in a video which had warned of dire consequences for anyone disobeying the instructions.

Consequently, Jahnu Baruah was arrested after following the due procedure, the federal probe agency said.

Jahnu Baruah, who planted the four IEDs at Pan Bazar, Dispur, Gandhi Mandap and Satgaon in Guwahati, had been under surveillance and monitoring for past several weeks.

He was one of the several suspects identified by NIA, on the basis of technical and human intelligence, as being involved in collection and transportation of the IEDs that were planted to trigger large-scale explosions in Assam on the occasion of I-Day, causing loss to property and life and inciting terror in the state.

NIA had taken over the investigation of the case from the state police on September 17, and found that the IEDs were planted at the behest of Aishang Asom alias Abhijit Gogoi and other top leaders of ULFA (I).