Confusion over Bidai

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, February 25: Confusion prevailed over reports that NDFB(S) deputy army chief G Bidai, said to be the mastermind of the December 23 carge, was arrested in Bhutan and handed over to Assam police.

Local news channels claimed that the wanted militant was injured in a gunfight inside Bhutan and was subsequently handed over to Assam Police.

However, top Assam Police officials feigned ignorance about any such

development and denied the TV report.

Even the Indian army and other security agencies denied having any such information.

Some sources said that it was a “cooked-up story” planted by a security agency in a TV channel.

Bidai alias Bishnu Goyari carries Rs five lakh on his head.

Earlier, army officials had said that he is suspected to have fled either to Bhutan or to West Bengal after the December 23 massacre in which over 80 Adivasis were killed and hundreds of houses torched in BTAD and Sonitpur district.

Assam Police had earlier said that the blueprint for the carge was made by Bidai, after he had a rrow escape in an encounter in which two of his colleagues were killed.

He is the senior-most leader of the Bodo outfit known to be operating from the state itself. The other top leaders are reportedly camping in Myanmar. Most of the outfit’s activities are carried out at the instructions of Bidai who had emerged as the de-facto boss of the outfit.

A senior Assam Police official had even claimed that Bidai had carried out the December 23 massacre without the consent of the outfit’s chief IK Songbijit.