Ministers and top officials of the then BNP-Jamaat led government were fully aware of the 10-truck arms haul seized at Chattogram port in 2004, claimed Anup Chetia, a co-founder and former general secretary of the banned Indian insurgent group United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).
The former insurgent leader disclosed the secrets during an interview with a Bangladeshi private television channel ’71tv.
Anup Chetia told the television reporter, “I told you, the then government was informed of the 10-truck arms haul. The government was also aware of the presence of our (ULFA) leader in Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh.”
The former ULFA leader said that they earlier had procured the fire arms and ammunition from different international arms dealers to carry out insurgent activities.
During the interview, Anup Chetia claimed he is no longer involved with any insurgency. Rather, he is now active in the development of Asam, a state of India, and building good relationship with Bangladesh.
Anup chetia recently came to Bangladesh to attend his daughter’s wedding ceremony when he talked to several Bangladeshi reporters.
In another interview the former insurgent leader also claimed that the 10 trucks of arms seized in Bangladesh in 2004 did not belong to the ULFA.
Other insurgent organisations in India’s northeast might have links to the consignments, Chetia said.
Chetia also claimed that ULFA did not have any ties to intelligence agencies in other countries.
It may be recalled that law-enforcement agencies in Bangladesh had arrested the ULFA leader along with two of his associates from Mohammadpur in capital Dhaka in 1997. He was charged with an illegal stay in Bangladesh and holding unauthorised foreign currency and a satellite phone.
A Dhaka court sentenced him to three, four and seven years in prison in three cases. His sentence ended in 2007, but the top Assamese separatist leader was handed over to India in 2015 after being held in Bangladesh prisons for eight more years.
He then spent a month behind bars in Assam before being released on bail. The Indian government is now in discussion with the ULFA as Chetia faces two cases against him there.
He travelled to Bangladesh recently to meet his daughter Banya Barua in Cumilla. He said he had first visited Bangladesh during the devastating floods that hit both the countries in 1988.
“I thought of building a base in Bangladesh, a diplomatic one. Burma [Myanmar] was one of our shelters. But we had no communication deep in the forests and mountains and had to walk there. No international communication can reach the place.”
“So we decided to establish a base in Bangladesh for international relations. We did not live here permanently then, only coming when necessary and leaving thereafter. Security at the borders was not so tight then.
“In 1995, I arrived in Bangladesh with my family. I wanted to spend more time on international publicity, campaigning and lobbying but was arrested.”
Chetia said he lived in Bangladesh at that time as a Khasia businessman under an alias, John David.
Chetia said his wife admitted their daughter to a school in Dhaka after his arrest in 1997. The daughter changed schools several times and finally chose Mastermind, where she took up a Muslim name. Before his arrest, Chetia admitted his son to a school in Dhaka with the title Barua.
