The United Liberation Front of Asom (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 through an armed struggle via the Assam conflict. The Government of India banned the organisation and designated it as a terrorist organisation in 1990 listing it under "other groups of concern".
According to ULFA sources, it was founded on 7 April 1979 at Rang Ghar and began operations in the mid-1980s. ULFA established ties with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland in 1983 and with the Burma-based Kachin Independent Army in 1987. Military operations against the ULFA by the Indian Army began in 1990 and continue to this day. On 5 December 2009, the chairman and the military operation commander of ULFA were taken into Indian custody. In 2011, there was a major crackdown on ULFA in Bangladesh under the previous regime of Awami League, which greatly assisted the government of India in bringing ULFA leaders to talks. In January 2010, a portion of ULFA softened its stance and dropped demands for independence as a condition for talks with the Government of India.
On 3 September 2011, a tripartite agreement for "Suspension of Operations" agreement was signed by the Indian government, the Assam government and the ULFA.
History
The ULFA was founded in courtyard of historic amphitheatre–Rang Ghar on 7 April 1979 in Sivasagar, Assam by a group of young men that included Bhupen Borgohain, Bhimkanta Buragohain, Tarun Gogoi, Pradip Gogoi, Bhadreshwar Gohain and Budheswar Gogoi. The organisation's purpose was to engage in an armed struggle to form a separate independent state of Assam.
During its peak days in the late 80s and 90s, it had support among many of the Assamese people of the Brahmaputra valley. The majority of the supporters felt that a powerful organization was necessary to get the voice of a peripheral region heard, to the central government. But gradually, the organisation's emphasis on illegal means and smuggling of weapons in the name of furthering the 'revolution' led to violence throughout the state. It witnessed a period marked by growing disillusionment and anger amid supporters.
In the conflict, many civilians were killed and several thousand were permanently maimed and displaced. It is estimated that more than 10 thousand local youths were killed and disappeared during that period. In the process, owing to the twin factors of increasing operations by the security forces and dwindling support among its core sympathisers, ULFA's importance in Assam has been declined drastically.
Recruiting for the front did not begin until 1983. Soon after it finished recruitment in 1984, it began to seek out training and arms procurement from other groups such as the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN). In 1986, it launched a fundraising campaign across India. It then began to set up camps in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh but was soon declared a terrorist organization by the government on 7 November, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
In less than a decade of its formation, the ULFA emerged as one of the most powerful insurgent outfits in Southeast Asia, largely because of the immense popularity, it enjoyed during the first decade of its struggle as well as its economic power which in turn helped it in bolstering its military capabilities. In the early 1990s, ULFA launched an armed campaign against Indian forces, political opponents, and blasted rail links. In July 1991, the front captured and held 14 people for ransom, included in the abductees was an engineer and a national of the Soviet Union. From the 1990s, the ULFA have continued to carry out attacks.
Till the late 2000s, it maintained a number of camps in Bangladesh, where members were trained and sheltered away from Indian security forces. In April 2004, Bangladesh police and Bangladesh Coast Guard intercepted massive amounts of illegal arms and ammunition at Chittagong, being loaded into 10 trucks. A total of 50 were charged with arms smuggling and arms offenses, including former high-level Bangladesh political appointees including ministers of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and NSI military officers, as well as prominent businessmen, and Paresh Baruah, the chief of ULFA who was then living in Dhaka. He later fled the country.
They had also maintained camps in Bhutan, which were destroyed during Operation All Clear by the Royal Bhutan Army aided by the Special Frontier Force in December 2003. These camps housed combatants and non-combatant families of ULFA members.
ULFA maintained close relationships with other separatist organisations like NDFB, KLO and NSCN (Khaplang).
In 2008, News Services reported citing Indian police and intelligence officials reported ULFA's commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah had taken refuge in Yunnan Province of China, along China-Myanmar border, due to continued losses incured to his organization. The report also stated that a group of militants had also taken refuge along with him. Paresh Baruah had previously visited China in the 1980s. In December 2003, China spurned ULFA's chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa appeal to provide safe passage to the rebels from Bhutan.
On 13 July 2025, ULFA(I) claimed that the Indian Army launched drone attacks on camps in Sagaing Region, Myanmar. Indian officials denied knowledge of any cross-border operations recently targeting ULFA(I).
Faction
In 2011, ULFA split into Pro-talk faction under Arabinda Rajkhowa and Anti-talk faction under Paresh Baruah and reemerged as ULFA-I (independent). The Pro-talk faction consisting of 533 cadres and leaders disbanded in conclusion of peace treaty in 2023. As of 2020, the Anti-talk faction of ULFA-I which is still active has an estimated cadre strength of 1000+ cadres based in four camps in Myanmar.
Disbandment of Pro-truce Faction
On 23 January 2024 the Pro-truce fraction led by Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and military leader Raju Baruah was disbanded.
Organizational structure
During the 1990s and 2000s, the total strength of ULFA was stated to be around 3,000, while various other sources put the figure ranging from 4,000 to 6,000. A military wing of the ULFA, the Sanjukta Mukti Fouj (SMF) was formed on 16 March 1996.
SMF had formed three full-fledged so-called battalions: the 7th, 28th, and the 709th. While remaining battalions exist only on paper at best they have the strengths of a company or so. Their allocated spheres of operation are as follows:
- 7th Bn (HQ-Sukhini) is responsible for defence of General Headquarters (GHQ).
- 8th Bn – Nagaon, Morigaon, Karbi Anglong
- 9th Bn – Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar
- 11th Bn – Kamrup, Nalbari
- 27th Bn – Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar
- 28th Bn – Tinsukia, Dibrugarh
- 709th Bn – Kalikhola
Secret killings of the family members of militants
During the second government of AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, as a part of his government's counter-insurgency strategy, unidentified gunmen had assassinated a number of family members of ULFA leaders. With the fall of this government following elections in 2001, the secret killings stopped. Dinesh Barua, the elder brother of Paresh Barua, was taken from his house at night by unidentified Assamese men, Later his body was found lying near a cremation center in Chabua. ULFA's self-styled Publicity Secretary, Mithinga Daimary, also had his five family members killed during this period.
Government investigations into the killings culminated in the report of the "Saikia Commission", presented to the Assam Assembly on 15 November 2007. The report describes how the killings were organised by Prafulla Mahanta, then the Assam Home Minister. They were executed by the police. The gunmen were former members of ULFA who had surrendered to the government. They approached their targets at home, at night, knocking on the door and speaking in Assamese to allay suspicion. When the victims answered the door, they were shot or kidnapped to be shot elsewhere.
Enigma Force
Enigma Force or Enigma Group was an exclusive and near autonomous striking group of the ULFA. It is known to a few top leaders of the outfit and the cadres were isolated from the others. It was designed for hit and run type of operations. It was headed by the Raju Baruah.
Activities
On 10 May 1985, some ULFA activist robbed Silpukhri branch branch of UCO Bank and killed the branch manager Girish Goswami.
On 1 March 1986, a few ULFA activist robbed more than ₹40 million (US$430,000) Namrup branch of State Bank of India. The bank robbery created a chaos and following a heavy gunfight between ULFA and Assam police. The gunfight killed Officer-in-Charge of Namrup police station, injuring four policemen and three civilian.
On 29 July 1990, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of the Dibrugarh district Daulat Singh Negi (IPS) and his PSO and driver were killed by an ambush in Lahoal of Dibrugarh district by the ULFA.
Some of the major assassinations by ULFA include that of Surendra Paul in May 1990, the brother of businessman Lord Swraj Paul, that precipitated a situation leading to the sacking of the Government of Assam under Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and the beginning of Operation Bajrang.
In 1991, a Russian engineer, and national of the Soviet Union was kidnapped along with others and killed. In 1997, Sanjay Ghose, a social activist and a relative of a high-ranking Indian diplomat, was kidnapped and killed. The highest government officer assassinated by the group was local Asom Gana Parishad minister Nagen Sarma in 2000. An unsuccessful assassination attempt was made on AGP Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in 1997. A mass grave, discovered at a destroyed ULFA camp in Lakhipathar forest, showed evidence of executions committed by ULFA.
In August 1995, it killed eight SF personnel. In November a joint ambush by ULFA and BDSF killed five security personnel.
In 1996, ULFA killed 13 SF personnel in three separate attacks.
In 2003, the ULFA was accused of killing labourers from Bihar in response to an alleged molestation of a Mizo girl in a train passing through Bihar. This incident sparked off anti-Bihari sentiment in Assam and ULFA saw it as an opportunity to regain its lost ground. The ULFA killed civilians of Bihari origin and other outsiders of mainland India.
In 2003, during a Railways Recruitment Board Examination for Group (D) posts conducted by Northeast Frontier Railway zone a wing of Indian Railways, a good number of candidates from Bihar and other states were beaten up and stopped from taking the exam by some elements who were seeking 100 percent reservations for unemployed indigenous Assamese people in the said test.
In resentment, conflicts arose with train passengers from North Eastern Indians states passing through some of the stations like Katihar, Jamalpur, Kishanganj in Bihar.
During that period ULFA was already losing its popularity and ground across many pockets in Assam where it had strongholds. However, ULFA took this situation as an opportunity to fan an opposition against 'India' among people in Assam. They started killing Hindi-speaking people mostly having origin in Bihar in the State.
On 15 August 2004, an explosion occurred in Dhemaji District of Assam in which 13 people died, mainly women and school children. This explosion was carried out by ULFA. The ULFA has obliquely accepted responsibility for the blast and tendered public apology for it in a statement issued by Paresh Baruah in 2009.
In January 2007, the ULFA once again struck in Assam killing approximately 62 Hindi-speaking migrant workers mostly from Bihar. ULFA notoriety as a directionless and unpopular organisation increased, as the bomb blast victims also included several indigenous Assamese people.
On 15 March 2007, ULFA triggered a blast in Guwahati, injuring six people as it celebrated its 'army day'.
The Central Government made a tough response, forcing a dreaded group of ULFA – 28 Battalion to unilaterally bow down and seek asylum from the government. This particular one-sided ceasefire broke the backbone of ULFA.
In June 2010, in an IED blast claimed by ULFA at Goalpara, killed five CRPF jawans and injured 33.
In November 2017, in a joint attack by ULFA-NSCN (K), it ambushed and killed 3 jawans and injured 4 at Pengeri area of Tinsukia District.
Political activities
After 1985 and before it was banned in 1990, ULFA was credited in the media with many public activities. It has continued a public discourse of sorts through the local media (newspapers), occasionally publishing its position on political issues centred around the nationality question. It has participated in public debates with public figures from Assam. During the last two local elections, the ULFA had called for boycotts. Media reports suggest that it used its forces to intimidate activists and supporters of the then-ruling parties (Congress and AGP respectively).