(KUNA) -- A "self-styled commander" of banned insurgent group United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) surrendered before the Army Wednesday at Dibrugarh in Assam, a state in Northeast India.Commander of 82 Mountain Brigade of Indian Army Brigadier Jayesh Saini told reporters at Dibrugarh that the surrender was part of the Army's strategy of fighting insurgency and not the insurgents.
"Based on this strategy intensive military operations to put psychological pressure on ULFA had been launched," Brigadier Saini told reporters, news agency Press Trust of India reported. "In order to encourage the ULFA rebels to surrender, the Assam government was working on self-employment schemes and rehabilitation packages," he said, adding, "the Indian Army is also planning to conduct vocational training for surrendered guerrilla."
ULFA is waging an insurgency since 1979 to create "sovereign" Assam carved out of India. New Delhi has accused ULFA leadership of maintaining close links with Pakistan's ISI to create disturbance in the country's Northeast.
New Delhi has often raised with Dhaka the issue of the presence of Indian Insurgent Groups from Northeast including ULFA on Bangladeshi soil and urged the authorities there to act against the rebel leadership there. However, Dhaka denies the presence of any Indian rebel on its soil.
Leading US think tank Stratfor in its latest report India: ULFA Abandons Peace Talks had said that ULFA was keen to work with groups like Bangladesh-based Harkt ul Jihadi Islami in India's Northeast and has begun to outsource terror operations. ULFA had suffered a major setback last month, when "commander" of its "28th battalion" Prabal Neog was arrested in Assam.