Saturday, April 2 2005 14:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Guwahati: The proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has lost the peoples support in Assam and is therefore engaging in acts of desperation such as bomb blasts, said a top Army official today (April 2, 2005).

Talking informally to reporters in Guwahati, the outgoing GoC 4 Corps and military commander of the Unified Command Structure in Guwahati, Lt Gen Anup Singh Jamwal said that the people's complete lack of support to the ULFA had driven them to these acts of desperation.

Jamwal, who is to take charge of the Army's 9 Corps, also said that the unified command operation against the insurgents was going on in full swing with cooperation from the Government and police officials.

The Lt General said that during his 15-month tenure as 4 Corps GoC he understood the people's problem, which was primarily unemployment.

This joblessness drove the youth towards militancy and to join the ULFA.

He was hopeful that the vexed insurgency issue would be settled soon through negotiations.

In the run up to the outfit's 'Raising Day' on April 7, the ULFA yesterday (April 1, 2005) triggered serial bomb blasts across the State injuring eight persons, blew up an ONGC gas pipeline and also had two of its cadres killed.