Did police goof-up cost Ram his life?

By Syed Zarir Hussain Jul 13, 2007, 5:29 GMT

Guwahati, July 13 (IANS) It was sheer callousness on the part of the Assam police that led to the killing of kidnapped Food Corporation of India (FCI) executive director Phul Chand Ram, caught in a crossfire between security forces and militants of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).

Ram was killed in a gunfight early Thursday at village Borkapanitema, about 50 km west of Guwahati, while police tried to rescue him from the clutches of ULFA who abducted him from here April 17.

There are contradictory claims made by the police top brass now to wriggle out of the mess - some said they had prior information about Ram being held hostage inside the village house, while others maintained they were not aware.But locals said that before raiding the house the police knew very well that Ram was inside.

The death of Ram has raised several questions. Why did the police go on an offensive despite knowing the FCI official was inside? 'If the police had specific information about Ram being there inside the house, then I would say the action was hasty and very badly planned,' Hare Krishna Deka, former Assam police chief, told IANS.

Two ULFA rebels were also killed in the encounter. The three bullet-riddled bodies, including that of Ram, were found inside the house.

'Had it been a routine tip-off that some extremists were inside the house and there was an encounter in which Ram was unknowingly killed, there is nothing wrong in such an operation,' Deka said.

'But it appears from reports that the raid was done in total haste and in an utterly unplanned manner.'

This is the second time the Assam police goofed up. On June 30, a mutilated body was recovered and they believed it was Ram and immediately asked his family to come and identify the body.

Ram's son Praveen arrived, mistakenly identified the body as that of his father and even performed the last rites in Ghaziabad.

In a dramatic twist, the FCI official telephoned his family July 6 to say he was alive and that the ULFA was seeking the release of two of their jailed leaders to set him free.

The government failed to react and did not even bother to open any channel of communication with the ULFA to seek Ram's release.

The tragic death of Ram has also exposed intelligence failure and claims by the government that the ULFA have lost its support base in rural areas.

From April 17 to July 12, the ULFA was shifting Ram from one place to another in western Assam. Had there been no support base, the ULFA would have failed to keep him hostage for so long.

The ease with which the ULFA managed to keep Ram in their custody has also exposed the so-called 'massive military crackdown' in the state.

'How is it possible for the ULFA to evade tight security for close to three months and shift Ram from one place to another? It appears there is no security at all ...the government has failed totally,' said Apurba Kumar Bhattacharyya, a senior leader of the opposition Asom Gana Parishad.

In the past, too, the Assam police have failed to rescue most of those kidnapped - those who were abducted and later released by the ULFA reportedly paid heavy ransoms.

The ULFA had killed Russian coal expert Sergei Gritchenko in July 1991 after kidnapping him from Ledo where he was working for Coal India Ltd. In 1997, noted social activist Sanjoy Ghosh was abducted from the world's largest river island Majuli and later killed - his body has not been found yet.

The Congress-led government now has to do lot of soul-searching and also try to evolve a different modus-operandi to deal with insurgency. The best option is to seriously pursue the task of brokering peace through talks rather than writing the ULFA off as a spent force.

The ULFA on their part should also avoid bargaining at the expense of innocent lives and come for talks if at all they believe in a negotiated settlement.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service