One soldier killed, five critically wounded in ambush by separatists
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Guwahati, Aug 3, IRNA
India-Assam-Ambush
At least one paramilitary soldier was killed and five critically wounded in an ambush by separatists in India's northeastern state of Assam, officials Wednesday said.
The attack that took place late Tuesday in eastern Assam came hours after the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) threatened to step up its armed campaign.
A police official said heavily armed ULFA militants ambushed a convoy of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) near village Rajgarh, about 570 kilometers east of Assam's main city of Guwahati.
"The CRPF convoy came under heavy gunfire near a thickly forested area. The ULFA rebels used AK-56 assault rifles to attack the patrol team that was on way to a village for counter-insurgency operations," the police official who did not wish to be identified told IRNA.
The injured were shifted to a local hospital in the nearest town of Sadiya.
"The militants escaped under the cover of darkness soon after the ambush. The CRPF personnel got no time to react to the burst of gunfire," the official said.
The ULFA, a rebel group fighting for an independent Assamese homeland since 1979, Tuesday warned New Delhi to begin peace talks immediately or else threatened to intensify its armed offensive.
"We cannot just sit tight with the hope of getting a positive response from the Indian government for holding peace talks. We shall have no option other than intensifying our armed struggle," Arabinda Rajkhowa, chairman of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), said in a statement.
The ULFA chairman in early July sent a formal letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offering to hold talks if the government agrees to discuss the outfit's core demand of "sovereignty" or independence.
The ULFA's letter was in response to a formal invitation for talks by Singh two months back.
Intelligence officials said Tuesday's ambush could be the beginning of a series of attacks ahead of India's Independence Day on August 15.
"We have been getting reports of plans by the ULFA to create terror in the run up to August 15 in an attempt to pressurizing New Delhi to hold talks on their terms," the intelligence official said on customary conditions of anonymity.
Last year, the ULFA triggered a powerful blast during an Independence Day parade in eastern Assam that killed 20 people,most of them students taking part in the ceremony.
On India's Republic Day on January 26, rebels triggered two powerful explosions during a ceremonial parade in the heart of Guwahati. At least a dozen people were injured in the twin blasts in Guwahati.
More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Assam during the past two decades.
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