Dharmen Hajong, a top Ulfa leader and commander of the outfit’s 109 battalion, committed suicide on August 4 by hanging himself in a cell of the Tura police station in West Garo Hills. He had been kept in police custody there since Saturday, August 2. Police say that he used his blanket to hang himself in the cell.  

Ulfa was planning to transport arms from Bangladesh to Assam prior the Independence Day in India and the arrest of Hajong in Tura at this juncture botched this mission. The police said they were planning to cross-examine the arrested Ulfa leader more to know if the militant outfit had hidden arms in Garo hills for ferrying it to Assam at a more convenient occasion.  

Hajong originally belonged from Ulfa’s 28 battalion. He recently took over the 109 battalion replacing Madan Koch, who got killed in the January 22 encounter. As the new area commander, Hajong held the responsibility of overseeing the transfer of arms from Bangladesh to Assam.  Meghalaya police arrested Hajong on Saturday from a shop in Tura supermarket, which he was running for the past few months.