A former member of the gang of terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has floated a rebel outfit in Arunachal Pradesh. The outfit's objective, reports based in intelligence inputs say, is to create an autonomous district council out of nine circles in Lohit and Changlang districts of India's easternmost
state.
Police officials in Arunachal Pradesh said Sumona Munlang, 42, was a D-Company sharpshooter before returning to the state earlier this year to form the United People's Democratic Front (UPDF). The outfit is estimated to have 50-70 members, many of them armed with China-made weapons.
"We are on the lookout for Munlang, wanted for several cases of crime including murder and bank fraud," said RK Sharma, deputy commissioner of Lohit district in eastern Arunachal Pradesh.
"The outfit he spearheads was earlier known as Tai-Khamti Liberation Front."
The Khamtis are a major tribe of Arunachal Pradesh.
Sharma, however, said he had no specific information about Munlang's connection with Mumbai's underworld. Security forces had arrested Munlang for petty crimes in 2002 before he fled to join the Dawood gang.
Intelligence officials said Munlang's UPDF could add to the problems of eastern Arunachal Pradesh, a sensitive area bordering China and Myanmar. "Tirap and Changlang districts in particular have been traditional sustenance zones as well as escape routes (to Myanmar and beyond) for bigger militant outfits," a central intelligence officer said.
The Isak-Muivah and Khaplang factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland and United Liberation Front of Asom use these two Arunachal Pradesh districts. Of late, Maoists are also learnt to have also made inroads into the area.