Railways sack one of India’s most wanted terrorists

GUWAHATI - The Indian Railways has finally sacked one of the country’s most wanted terrorists on the charge of not attending office for close to three decades after it was reported that he continued to be a central government employee supposedly posted in Assam.

Self-styled commander-in-chief of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) Paresh Baruah was appointed a porter of the Northeast Frontier Railways in 1978 at the Tinsukia division in eastern Assam.

But the ULFA leader was absent from his work since January 1980.

Hailing from Jeraigaon village in Tinsukia district, about 500 km east of Assam’s main city of Guwahati, the elusive Baruah is described as a ‘violent man’ with red corner notices issued against him and the Interpol on the prowl. The maximum penalty he potentially faces is the death sentence, according to the Assam police.

A formal notification was issued Thursday sacking Paresh Baruah from service with the order put up at the notice board at the Tinsukia railway station.

IANS reported Dec 1 last year that Baruah was still a registered employee of the railways. Following the report, the railway ministry swung into action and processed the file for sacking him.

“Two dates were first fixed for hearing and then after two weeks when no one turned up to claim the post, Paresh Baruah was sacked as per government procedures,” a senior railway official told IANS.

He was 21 when he got a porter’s job in 1978 under the sports quota (he was a footballer) at a monthly salary of Rs.370.

Baruah, now 52, formed the ULFA in April 1979 along with five others, including self-styled Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, now in jail at Guwahati.