If one goes by `Bleeding Assam: The Role of the ULFA', a Home Ministry report, apart from Dhaka, the ULFA has also begun business projects in other Bangladeshi towns like Sylhet, Mymensingh and Narsingdi. ``In Dhaka, the Ulfa owns three hotels, one private clinic and two motor driving schools. In Sylhet district, it has several grocery and drug stores. In Mymensingh, it owns some poultry farms while in Narsingdi, it runs two schools,'' the report says.

The report, which was recently distributed by the ministry at a meeting of NGOs in Shillong, also say that ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia - now lodged in a Dhaka jail - is in charge of all the projects.

The Home Ministry report says that the ULFA generates a lotof money from these projects, and it is these funds that enable its leaders like chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, to live in luxury in Bangladesh and elsewhere.

For instance, Anup Chetia, who was arrested in Dhaka on December 21 last year, had been travelling extensively before his arrest. Among the places he has visited are Brazil and South Africa where he is said to have spent lavishly.

The United Liberation Front of Asom, the report says, has also set up a profitable narcotics business following its tie-up with the NSCN (K) which has led to contacts with the Kachin Independent Army (KIA). ``They (ULFA leaders) are also developing links with ex-drug baron Khun Sa's disbanded Mong Tai army, both for procurement of arms and for narcotics conduit,'' it says.

The Home Ministry report also talks of the expensive lifestyles of United Liberation Front of Asom leaders and also of their families. It also says money is being extorted from business houses and the common people for``the personal benefit of the luxury-loving United Liberation Front of Asom leaders basking in luxurious villas and five-star hotels in foreign cities like Geneva and Bangkok.'' But surprisingly, though the Ministry claims that the report is being released ``in Assam's public interest'', it has been printed and distributed only in English language.

Killings handiwork of BLTF

NEW DELHI: The banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has claimed the ongoing killings in the Bodo-dominated areas of Assam were the handiwork of the Bodoland Liberation Tiger Force (BLTF) which, it alleges, ``is being helped by the army''. Reacting for the first time to the recent killings in the area, ULFA expressed support for the demand for ``not only autonomy but also sovereignty'' to a separate Bodoland, but said with the present trend of killings by BLTF it was doubtful if non-Bodos in such a state would be safe.

``The BLTF,'' which ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa claimed, ``gets its arms, rations and otherlogistics from the army, have started killing non-Bodos indiscriminately even before the establishment of a separate Bodoland state.