Data does not reflect any “sudden spurt” in recruitment by the United Liberation Front of Assam (Independent) but social media is helping the militant outfit reach people in a much wider way, head of Assam Police’s Special Branch, Pallab Bhattacharyya, has told The Indian Express.
“I don’t think there is a sudden spurt in recruitment. Recruitment haws going on in the past, too – just that it was taking place silently and was not reflected through social media and sections of the mainstream media as it is now,” Special D-G Bhattacharyya said.
The outlawed ULFA(I) has of late hit the headlines for multiple reasons — it was suspected in the killing of five Bengali-speaking farmers in Tinsukia district in November; a software engineer named Abhijeet Gogoi and a local student leader, Pankaj Pratim Dutta, joined the outfit, and Bhattacharyya himself told the media that the opposition in the state to the proposal to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 has added a “fresh lease of life” to the activities of the militant outfit.