Paresh Barua is `Assam's most wanted' on police website

Paresh Barua is `Assam's most wanted' on police website
SAMUDRA GUPTA KASHYAP

GUWAHATI, FEB 20: He IS 173 cms tall, has black hair and black eyes. There is a scar on the palm of his right hand. He can handle all kinds of weapons, travels on a forged passport and identity card and lives on money obtained from extortion or robbery.

This is the description of Paresh Barua, the self-styled commander-in-chief of the armed wing of the banned ULFA, who figures at the top of the ``most wanted'' list of the Assam Police.

For those who are interested to know more about him, he is also known as Paban Barua, Pradip Barua and Nur-Uz-Zaman. And besides Assamese, can speak a number of languages including English, Bengali, Hindi, Naga and Singpho (a tribe of eastern Arunachal Pradesh).

The Assam Police, which launched its website (www.assampolice.com) last week, also posted a ``reason for notice'' to Barua, supposedly the most dreaded ULFA leader, saying: ``Wanted on an arrest warrant (no number given), issued February 14, 1997, by judicial authorities in Guwahati, for murder, receiving stolen property, unlawful imprisonment and violation of firearms legislation.''

The information posted on the website includes an incident that occured on May 10, 1985, when Barua and his gang members raided a bank in Guwahati, shot the manager there and fled away with Rs 27,549.62 in cash. While the money was recovered and several of the offenders arrested, Barua is still at large.

Barua is also said to have procured weapons, ammunition, explosives and communication devices for the ULFA with the money obtained through illlegal means by the organisation. He is also accused of obtaining arms and guerilla training under the ISI of Pakistan, the Kachin Independent Army (KIA) of Myanmar and the NSCN.

What the website does not disclose, however, is the other side of Barua, who used to be a darling of the crowds in Chabua, his hometown, as the centre-forward of the local football team. That was in the early 1970s, a time when just out of school with a first division in his final exams, Barua also found a place in the Assam junior football team. He in fact picked up a job with the Northeast Frontier Railway at Tinsukia for his prowess in the game and also played for the local railway team, bringing laurels to it.

Today, at 44, Barua hardly plays the game but continues to be the centre-forward of the ULFA, a team that is so heavily dependent on his tactics.

Though no awards have been announced by the state police, Barua will definitely be a prize catch.