Guwahati: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday arrested a key operative of the banned terrorist outfit, ULFA (I), for planting IEDs in Guwahati (Assam) during the 2024 Independence Day celebrations.
NIA teams with the active support of Assam Police carried out searches at the house of Jahnu Baruah @ Arnab Axom in Dibrugarh in an intelligence-based operation carried out in the early hours of this morning.
Several incriminating materials, including digital devices, were seized during a search of his house and are currently under examination. He was summoned to local police establishment for further examination.
The accused, during preliminary investigation, confessed to his involvement in planting four of the 11 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that were recovered by the state police during the I-Day celebrations.
The IEDs had been planted as part of the military protest and I-Day boycott call by Paresh Baruah, SS C-in-C of ULFA(I), in a video, which had warned of dire consequences for anyone disobeying the instructions. Consequently, Jahnu Barua was arrested after following the due procedure.
Jahnu Baruah @ Arnab Axom, who planted the four IEDs at Pan Bazar, Dispur, Gandhi Mandap and Satgaon in Guwahati, had been under surveillance and monitoring for past several weeks.
He was one of the several suspects identified by NIA, on the basis of technical and human intelligence, as being involved in collection and transportation of the IEDs that were planted to trigger large-scale explosions in Assam on the occasion of I-Day, causing loss to property and life and inciting terror in the state.
NIA had taken over the investigation of the case from the state police on 17th September, and found that the IEDs were planted at the behest of Aishang Asom @ Abhijit Gogoi and other top leaders of ULFA (I). Investigations in the case are continuing.
