Indian officials trying to confirm Marak’s identity
By IANSSunday, July 18, 2010
SHILLONG - Efforts are on to confirm the identity of Pradip Marak, who was arrested along with United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leader Ranjan Chowdhury in Bangladesh, officials Sunday said.
“We are making efforts to ascertain the national identity of Pradip Marak through diplomatic channels,” a top intelligence official, on the condition of anonymity, told IANS.
It remains to be seen whether Marak is a Bangladeshi as a sizeable Garo population inhabits the neighbouring country, another intelligence official said.
The Garos are one of the major tribes in India’s northeastern states which has been separated from its original homeland in the Garo hills of Meghalaya and is now scattered across Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, India is awaiting official confirmation from Bangladesh of the arrest of two ULFA rebels.
Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Saturday paraded the detained Chowdhury alias Major Ranjan and his aide Marak before the media in Dhaka.
Chowdhury is a former general secretary of Assam’s Dhubri district unit of ULFA. The RAB recovered a pistol, a revolver, four handmade bombs and bomb-making material from the hideout.
