With the killing of four ULFA militants last night in an encounter in the Arara village of Assam’s Nalbari district, the army’s Tezpur-based 4 Corps, after a ten-month lull, has mobilised forces in response to intelligence warnings of serial attacks by the outfit in near future.

The army is currently engaged in intercepting and hunting down militants in the Barpeta, Baska and Kamrup districts of Assam as well.

A company from the 16 Garhwal Battalion deployed in lower Assam killed the four ULFA militants as part of a joint operation with police and CRPF. On July 12, army troops killed ULFA lieutenants Pradip Rajbongshi and Mrinal Rajbongshi in Baglamari village of Nalbari.

As reported by The Indian Express on June 23, with assembly polls over, the ministry wrote to the army to proceed against the ULFA. In September 2005, for political reasons, a large army operation was called off in the Dibrugarh-Saikhowa National Park when a large number of militants were to be apprehended.

South Block’s green-signal notwithstanding, the army’s fresh mobilisation against the ULFA comes at a time when there is a stark sense of uncertainty over talks between the government and the ULFA slated for this month.