The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Police in India's northeastern state of Assam produced two top leaders of the banned separatist outfit ULFA in a Guwahati court on Saturday.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate in Guwahati sent them to 10 days police custody after they were produced in his court on November 7, according to a message received from India.

According to United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA ) its 'finance secretary' Chitrabon Hazarika and 'foreign secretary' Shashadhar Choudhury had been picked up by "unidentified armed men" from a house in Dhaka, in the first week of this month.

Meanwhile, ULFA has called for a dawn-to-dusk general shutdown across the state of Assam today ( Monday) to protest against the detention of its leaders.

The ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa alleged that the detention of Hazarika and Choudhury from Dhaka was part of New Delhi government's design to neutralise its leaders. ULFA has also protested their "handover to Indian authorities".

Neither the Indian government in New Delhi, nor the state government in Assam, has made any official statement how ULFA leaders landed in the custody of Indian police, the message said.

Hazarika and Choudhury had been spotted by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at the Bangladesh-India border at Gokul Nagar in Tripura, said a report quoting Indian home ministry source.

"They were trying to cross over to India from Bangladesh, when the BSF personnel spotted them and asked them to surrender. They surrendered and were taken into custody," the report quoting home ministry source said.

The two ULFA leaders had later been taken to Guwahati.

The Indian government and security agencies have long alleged that ULFA and other insurgent groups operating in the country's northeastern states have bases in Bangladesh, which Dhaka denies.

The Indian government and security agencies have acknowledged that Sheikh Hasina's government, has come down heavily on ULFA leaders and their activities in Bangladesh.

New Delhi reportedly considers the Dhaka's "cooperation" in detaining the two ULFA leaders as "a good gesture" ahead of prime minister Sheikh Hasina's planned visit to India.

The ULFA has been pursuing an armed rebellion since 1979 against what it terms New Delhi's "colonial rule" over the oil-rich tea-growing northeastern state.

The outfit had several camps in Bhutan too. But, in 2003, Bhutan launched a military offensive against them, dismantled its camps and detained a number of its leaders and guerillas along with a large number of arms and huge quantity of ammunition.

The Bhutanese authorities later handed over the detained insurgents to Indian security forces, although the ULFA alleged that some of its leaders and activists had been killed even after they had surrendered, the message received from India said.

ULFA later regrouped and continued its violent insurgency in the state including bombings. But it suffered a split last year, when some of its leaders declared a unilateral cease-fire agreement with the Indian government. New Delhi reciprocated, halting the security forces offensive against the outfit.

The ULFA's top leaders, including Rajkhowa and Barua, however, dissociated themselves from the peace-process and vowed to continue the "armed struggle to liberate Assam from Indian rule".

In March 2008, Mohammed Hafijur Rehman and Din Mohammed, both prime accused in the Chittagong arms haul case, confessed in court that a 10 truck-load consignment of weapons and ammunition, seized in the port city of Bangladesh in 2004, had in fact been meant for the ULFA.

Rehman also revealed that the ULFA military chief Barua himself had supervised the arms-smuggling operation.

During foreign minister Dipu Moni's visit to New Delhi last September, India and Bangladesh had reiterated their resolve to strengthen bilateral co-operation to fight against terrorist activities.

In a joint statement, both sides also reiterated their firm commitment not to allow the use of their territories for activities inimical to each other's security interests.

The report quoting Indian officials said that interrogation of Choudhury and Hazarika might provide information relating to the financing and international operations of ULFA, which has reportedly in recent years linked with global arms smuggling.