ULFA leader’s fiefdom within Guwahati jail ends

ULFA leader’s fiefdom within Guwahati jail ends
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

GUWAHATI, JULY 5: What does a top ULFA leader like vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi get up to during his tenure in the supposedly high-security Guwahati District Jail? The answer is simple: he sets up his own fiefdom within the high walls of the prison, easily communicating with other leaders of the rebel group based even outside India.

Gogoi has, in fact, been running his fiefdom for several years, engaging none other than District Jail employees who smuggle his letters to and from the jail. If that was not enough, the ULFA vice-chairman also allegedly used the telephone in the jail superintendent's office for hours at a time.

If senior officials in the Kamrup district administration are to be believed, several people, including doctors and lawyers, regularly visit Gogoi and other ULFA detenues. They have managed to convince jail staff that they are doing nothing wrong by attending to the ULFA leaders' needs.

While these activities have been going on for several years (Gogoi was arrested way back in 1995 and has since been lodged in Guwahati Jail), it was only last Thursday, when police arrested Soruram Saikia (41), that police got an inkling of what was going on.

Saikia, who hails from Uriagaon in Nagaon district of Central Assam, was picked up from his residence, a rented house at Birubari in the city. After his confession, police arrested a Kiran Saikia (47), through whom Pradip Gogoi's letters were being regularly passed to the ULFA.

The police, however, are yet to find out to whom exactly these letters were passed on, but have assured that some important leads have been found. Interestingly, the house which Soruram Saikia had taken on rent is the same house where dreaded ULFA cadre Babul Ingti was killed in an encounter with the police last year.

While Pradip Gogoi's fiefdom thrived with the help of Soruram Saikia and a few other jail staff, the arrival of two ISI agents, Javed Waqar and Fasiullah Husseini, last year has further complicated the security situation within Guwahati Jail.

A senior district administration official revealed that the 40-odd ULFA rebels lodged in the jail, soon made friends with the ISI agents. According to accounts in a local daily, Husseini and Waqar being massaged by ULFA cadres of lower ranks was a regular sight to behold.

There have also been reports of how the ISI is contemplating "rescuing" Husseini and Waqar from the Guwahati jail. After seriously reviewing the situation following the arrest of Soruram Saikia and Kiran Saikia, the police have shifted Gogoi and the two ISI agents late Monday night out of Guwahati.

While Pradip Gogoi has been shifted under heavy security cover to Silchar District Jail in Southern Assam, the two ISI agents have been transferred to the Jorhat District Jail in Upper Assam.