GUWAHATI: Drishti Rajkhowa aka Manoj Rabha, the deputy military chief of the Paresh Baruah faction of insurgent group United Liberation Front of Assam or ULFA-Independent, surrendered before security forces in Meghalaya.
An explosive expert responsible for many attacks and close to the outfit’s military chief Paresh Baruah, Rajkhowa (50) surrendered in Meghalaya along with four other members of the insurgent group.
“...Indian Army formation, deployed in Rangia (Assam) in close coordination with intelligence agencies, Assam Police and Meghalaya Police, carried out Operation Malakand...which resulted in the surrender of...Drishti Rajkhowa alias Manoj Rabha, along with four other dreaded cadres...” a defence statement said.
Over the past many years, the security forces made several attempts to neutralise Rajkhowa who had served as the “commander” of an ULFA battalion till 2011 when he first donned the deputy military chief’s mantle. He mostly operated out of areas on the Meghalaya-Bangladesh and Meghalaya-Assam borders and planned and executed many operations by the extremist group in Lower Assam.
The security forces believed his surrender had dealt a heavy blow to the insurgent group.
“The surrender of Drishti Rajkhowa along with four cadres...has certainly dealt a severe blow to the ulterior motives of ULFA (I) which had been trying to gain prominence and revive insurgency in lower Assam by undertaking large-scale recruitment,” the defence statement said.
A section of local media, however, reported that Rajkhowa was allowed to surrender by the ULFA’s top brass on humanitarian grounds as his wife has been diagnosed with cancer.
According to Meghalaya Police, Rajkhowa and the others had fled to Bangladesh to escape an encounter with the police in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills. However, even there, they encountered a similar situation which forced them to flee back to India and contact Army officials. They surrendered at Dilsengre village in South Garo Hills on Wednesday night.
A formal surrender ceremony was organised at Army’s Red Horns Division in Assam’s Rangiya on Thursday.