Within three weeks of the Army declaring Somtal in Manipur a ‘liberated zone’, the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) on February 8 claimed that its bases were still intact. The outfit vowed to mount offensives on the troops to push them back and stated that it had already killed as many as 17 soldiers during the said operation1.

Meanwhile, a United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militant, Manoj Tamuli, who was trained in the hijacking of aircraft, was arrested from Jalukbari on the outskirts of Guwahati on February 9. During interrogations, he revealed that ULFA was working on a plan to hijack an aircraft from one of the several airports in the Northeastern region with the intention of taking it away to Bangladesh or Nepal, and then to Afghanistan or Pakistan2.

• 1. “UNLF belies Somtal ‘success’,” Telegraph, February 9, 2008, at http://telegraphindia.com/section/northeast/index.jsp
• 2. “ULFA man trained for plane hijack held,” The Indian Express, February 10, 2008, at http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/271171.html