http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7454_1341641,000800050001.htm
ULFA under pressure after US 'terrorist' slur
The US decision to bracket ULFA as a "terrorist organisation" could
adversely impact the group's global campaign to drum up support for
its "freedom struggle".
The US State Department in its '2004 Country Reports on Terrorism' has
added ULFA to the Other Selected Terrorist Organisations (OSTO) List.
Groups on the OSTO List are terrorist organisations that do not target
the national security of the US or its citizens.
The outlawed ULFA claims to be a "revolutionary political
organisation" fighting against "foreign occupation" in the region.
New inclusion in terror list
ULFA, Communist Party of India (Maoist), Babbar Khalsa
International, International Sikh Youth Federation. Al-Mansoorian, a
shadow outfit of the Lashker-e-Taiba, included in foreign category.
Old terror List
Al-Badr Mujahideen, Harkt-ul-Jihad-e-Islami, Hizbul Mujahideen and
Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, the outfits active in J&K.
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayiba, all
active in J&K, in the list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations.
What does such list mean?
Being listed as a terrorist group means that the State Department
has identified the group as practicing, or it has significant
subgroups that practice international terrorism. Members of such
outfits, if found in the US, would be deported.
"The US decision to list ULFA as a terrorist organisation will
definitely be a major setback to the group," said Assam Inspector
General of Police Khagen Sharma.
"International human rights groups or other such bodies will now find
it hard to accept the ULFA as a revolutionary organisation after the
US listed it as a terrorist organisation," said Sharma.
There has been no immediate reaction from the ULFA to the US decision.
Security analysts, however, say the US move will not have much impact
on ULFA back home in Assam.
"The ULFA is already a banned group and security forces have all the
powers to deal with them like any terrorist group in the country," an
expert said.
The decision to list ULFA as a terrorist group could curtail the
freedom with which some its top leaders operate out of some foreign
countries, directing the hit-and-run guerrilla strikes in Assam.
The reasons that have prompted the US to put ULFA in its terrorist
list are recent incidents of violence, most of them targeting
civilians in Assam.
"The ULFA enjoyed widespread support in upper Assam in its initial
years... the ULFA began to lose popularity after it increasingly
targeted civilians," the US State Department report said.
"ULFA reportedly procures and trades in arms with other northeast
Indian groups, and receives aid from unknown external sources."
Indian intelligence officials say ULFA works in close tandem with
Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), with its cadres
receiving advanced weapons training in Pakistan from time to time.
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