Raju Baruah ( Assamese: (ৰাজু বৰুৱা) (real name Hitesh Kalita), alias Anees Ahmed, is the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, the Chief of military operations, military spokesperson and the head of the near-autonomous ' Enigma Force' of the banned outfit

ULFA The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) is an armed separatist insurgent organisation, that operates in the Indian state of Assam. It seeks to establish an independent sovereign nation state of Assam for the indigenous Assamese people thro ...

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

. When the outfit's Commander-in-Chief

Paresh Baruah Paresh Baruah, also known by the alias Paresh Asom is an Assamese separatist militant who is the army chief of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which is seeking Independence for Assam from the India, Indian Union. He is the vice-ch ...

was said to be critically ill, Raju Baruah was reportedly assumed to be the new military head.

Trouble with C-in-C

ULFA's C-in-C Paresh Baruah has reportedly been speaking to various associates about a confederal agreement with the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

if the outfit's General Body approves. Raju Baruah is known to have strongly opposed talks for which a trouble has been brewing between the two. He was also believed to be publicly chastised by the C-in-C. Any decision-making power had been taken away from him and he said to be 'under treatment' - but in fact in quasi-detention - at the Mirpur Military Hospital.

Death rumour

In December 2000, the

Assam Rifles The Assam Rifles (AR) is a paramilitary force of India responsible for border security, counter-insurgency, and maintaining law and order in Northeast India and in Jammu & Kashmir in lines of Rashtriya Rifles. Its primary duty involves guard ...

issued a press release in Agartala claiming that Baruah was killed in a gun-battle between two fractions of the outfit in the Chittagong hill tracts in Bangladesh. The next day a person identifying himself as

called up newspaper offices and broadcasting agencies from an undisclosed location and rubbished the Army's claim and said that it was nothing but a mere propaganda of the Indian government against the outfit's movement and nothing had happened to Raju Baruah.

Arrest

On 4 December 2009, Baruah with the outfit's chairman

Arabinda Rajkhowa Arabinda Rajkhowa (born Rajib Rajkonwar), alias Mijanur Rahman Choudhury, is the former chairman of ULFA and the current head of ULFA pro-talks faction under which signed a peace accord with the Centre and the Assam government in the presence o ...

along with eight others, surrendered before the Indian authority near the Indo-Bangladesh border in

Meghalaya Meghalaya (; "the abode of clouds") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeast India. Its capital is Shillong. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the Assam: the United Khasi Hills an ...

. They were said to be taken into custody by the

Border Security Force The Border Security Force (BSF) is a central armed police force in India under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is responsible for guarding India’s borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It was formed in the wake of the Indo-Pak War of 196 ...

the moment they had crossed the border near Dawki in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills.

Release

After one year of jail custody under Government of Assam, Raju Barua got bail and released on 27 November 2010. Raju Baruah, was accorded a grand welcome by hundreds of his supporters on Saturday when he came out of Guwahati jail on Saturday. Earlier, Baruah was granted bail in two Tada cases and in one CBI case. After being released from jail, Baruah left for his native place Bahjani in Nalbari district under special security cover. His family and friends came to the Guwahati central jail to welcome him. Baruah said he would be involved in solving the Ulfa problem along with others.

Public reactions & surrender

On 5 December 2009, Baruah along with the outfit's chairman

and Rajkhowa's bodyguard Raja Baruah were produced before the chief judicial magistrate, Kamrup. He with Rajkhowa rubbished police's claim that they had surrendered. They emerged as heroes among the crowd for the denial of surrender. They got the biggest boost when public encouraged them not to surrender shouting - "Surrender ''nokoribaw''" (Do not surrender). "''Moi'' surrender ''kora nai aru'' surrender ''nokoruw'' (I have not surrendered and will never surrender)", said Baruah to the crowd.

Coming to peace talk

As claimed, Baruah came to lateral talk with the Indian government.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baruah, Raju People from Nalbari district ULFA members Living people Year of birth missing (living people)