Terrorism for pleasure and profit
Mulling on terrorist outfits / freedom fighters (delete as appropriate) of our time, they do rather tend to have things that bring them together - be it ideology, nationality or religion. There will quite often be the sinister character from outside, mirror-lensed sunglasses ever sported, who will advise, and perhaps the occasional gullible foreigner who becomes a foot soldier in pursuit of his or her SLA, Baader-Meinhof etc fantasies.
However, if the Indian press is to be believed, the United Liberation Front of Asom (that's Assam in NE India, for those of us who have not kept track of the niceties of preferred geographical nomenclature) has run into trouble convincing Assamese youth that toting an AK and planting the odd bomb is much of a career path. Faced with having a 'struggle' to continue, and recruitment funds available (care of Pakistan, if the Indian press etc etc), the Assamese Maoists / Communists - details are hazy - are instead enticing Bangladeshis with the Politburo's rupee. Given that Bangladeshis are a different ethnic group, speak a different language and most likely are at least nominally Muslim, the disconnect between aims and means to achieve them does seem a little confused. If not quite as confused as the battalion numbering system chez ULPA. They have seven, apparently, and are numbered 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 27th, 28th, and best of all, the 709th. I imagine maths lesson in Guwahati and thereabouts must have been a tad confusing.
However, if the Indian press is to be believed, the United Liberation Front of Asom (that's Assam in NE India, for those of us who have not kept track of the niceties of preferred geographical nomenclature) has run into trouble convincing Assamese youth that toting an AK and planting the odd bomb is much of a career path. Faced with having a 'struggle' to continue, and recruitment funds available (care of Pakistan, if the Indian press etc etc), the Assamese Maoists / Communists - details are hazy - are instead enticing Bangladeshis with the Politburo's rupee. Given that Bangladeshis are a different ethnic group, speak a different language and most likely are at least nominally Muslim, the disconnect between aims and means to achieve them does seem a little confused. If not quite as confused as the battalion numbering system chez ULPA. They have seven, apparently, and are numbered 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 27th, 28th, and best of all, the 709th. I imagine maths lesson in Guwahati and thereabouts must have been a tad confusing.
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on Thursday, November 23, 2006 at 12:44 pm.
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