GUWAHATI | Assam minister Biswajit Daimary has praised the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), crediting the Moran-Matak communities with providing its core leadership and claiming that the outfit had helped protect Assam over the past five decades.

Daimary made the remarks while addressing a gathering after receiving the Bengmara Samanway Award at the central foundation day celebration of the Matak Yuva Chhatra Sanmilan. The event was held at Dirak Nawajyoti village in Kakopathar, near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border in Tinsukia district.

Highlighting the Moran-Matak community’s contribution to the organisation, Daimary said, “Because of the ULFA, no one has been able to lay a hand on Assam.” He asserted that members of the community had played a significant role in shaping ULFA’s leadership and specifically referred to its commander-in-chief, Paresh Baruah, who belongs to the Matak community. “The people who provided ULFA with its core leadership were from the Moran-Matak communities,” the minister said, adding that the situation in Assam over the past 50 years could have been very different without their involvement.

“Only God knows what the condition of Assam would have been over the past 50 years had the Moran-Matak people not been there,” he remarked. Daimary also described ULFA as an organisation that had demonstrated resilience over several decades, saying it was a force that others had been unable to weaken in the past 50 years. His comments came during a community gathering where he was honoured for his association with the Moran-Matak community.

The remarks placed the spotlight on the community’s historical role in Assam’s political landscape and its links with the state’s insurgency movement.ULFA emerged in 1979 amid demands for the protection of Assam’s identity, resources and political rights. Over the decades, however, the organisation’s armed campaign has also been associated with violence and prolonged instability in the state. Daimary’s remarks reflect his assessment of the outfit’s historical influence and the role of the Moran-Matak community in its leadership.