UPSCpedia: Polipedia: United Liberation Front of Asom

• The Government of India banned the organization in 1990 and classifies it as a terrorist group, while the US State Department lists it under "Other groups of concern"
• The major leaders of the organisation are:
  • Maj. Gen. Paresh BaruahCommander-in-Chief)(Presently in Myanmar, shuttling between Myanmar and China(Yunnan province)
  • Arabinda Rajkhowa (Chairman) (released from Government of Assam custody on January 1, 2011)
  • Pradip Gogoi (Vice-Chairman) (released on bail from Government of Assam custody)
• The ULFA is a "revolutionary political organization" engaged in a "liberation struggle" against state terrorism and economic exploitation by India for the establishment of a sovereign, independent Assam.
• The outlawed group has been using China for shelter following mounting pressure from both Burma and Bangladesh, in turn pressured by India. The outfit’s top commander, Paresh Baruah, is living near the Sino-Burmese border looking for an alternative position for a hideout. There are 50 ULFA militants holed up in China’s Yunnan Province
• During the government of AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, a number of family members of ULFA leaders were assassinated by unidentified gunmen. With the fall of this government following elections in 2001, the secret killings stopped.
• According to some reports in the print media,the Prafulla Mahanta government carried out these killings under pressure from L.K. Advani ( the then Home Minister of India in the BJP led NDA government) who became furious at Mahanta for failing to curb the growing popularity of Ulfa among the middle class and the student populations.