ULFA: The Mirage of Dawn

by Rajeev Bhattacharyya

English 400 pages 1 edition

This is the untold story of the outlawed separatist outfit, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), from its inception in the early 1980s in the backdrop of the historic Assam Movement, to the present when a peace process is on between a faction led by its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and the government. The account delves into all major episodes, delineates their causes and effects and debunks interpretations about the movement that have gained currency over the years. During its heyday, ULFA blazed a trail to guerrilla training centres along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, established a string of camps in Bhutan and Myanmar and hideouts in Bangladesh where it received regular consignments of weapons from China. The fast-paced narrative is based on exclusive interviews with ULFA functionaries in the Northeast, Myanmar and Bangladesh, former officers engaged in counter-insurgency operations, as well as papers of ULFA leaders.