By Sumit Kumar Singh

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS): Banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leaders have started utilizing the demonstration against Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) to their advantage, sources said on Monday.

"ULFA leader Arunoday Dahotia has asked his conduits to alert the Assamese people not to venture near the pockets of linguistic minorities," said the central intelligence agencies.

The agencies, thereafter, told the security establishments: "It indicates the possibilities of occurrence of incidents of arson/torching properties in these areas, which are likely to be committed by ant-national element."

The security and intelligence personnel have been deployed to keep a tap on movements of identified ULFA members.

The banned group has also threatened the Assam government that it would give a befitting reply if the government uses force to subdue the people's protests.

ULFA chief Paresh Barua stated that students and all sections of the society have come out in large numbers to protest peacefully but force was used by the authorities in an attempt to repress them.

"If this continues, we will not tolerate it and give a befitting reply," Barua asserted.

Thousands of people have come out on the streets to protest against the amendment of the Citizenship Act in Assam during which police resorted to firing leading to deaths of few citizens. In Guwahati, curfew was imposed, the administration has snapped broadband Internet services as protests have intensified.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has been appealing to the citizens not fall into the trap of false armour' that the Citizenship Act would result in lakhs of Hindu Bangladeshis settling down in Assam.

He had urged people not to fall for such armours' and exer cise restraints. He said those who indulged in violence were bent on creating disruptions in the state.