Guwahati, April 29: Top leader of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom -Independent (ULFA-I), was shot down following a fierce gun battle at Besimari area of Bongaigaon district in western Assam at Thursday dawn.
Police identified the deceased to be Dwipen Saud, ULFA-I’s western command chief who was appointed recently after the former Deputy Commander-in-Chief Drishti Rajkhowa had surrendered and joined main stream on November last year.
He has been taken to the Bongaigaon Civil Hospital where Saud has been declared “brought dead”.
Another, Padum Rai a gunman for Saud, has been apprehended alive along with two guns, a grenade, several rounds of bullets and several mobile phones.
The gun battle started at 5.30 in the residence of one Kishore Kumar Ray, after police raided following a specific input from its intelligence sources on their whereabouts.
Police said they had information on the outfit planning to conduct a “high-profile kidnapping”
“We had intel that Ulfa Western Command was planning some high-profile kidnapping in collaboration with other anti-India forces which now appears to be foiled,” said Assam DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta.
The outfit is responsible for at least teo instances of kidnapping — two employees of a Delui based ol rig company named Quippo and three employees of ONGCL — in the recent times.
