DHAKA: Sabitri Hagidok, a Garo virgin of Mariamnagar under Jhenaigati upazila of frontier district Sherpur, married ULFA leader Ranjan Chowdhury alias Masud Ranjan Chowdury in 1998 after an uninterrupted romance of three years.  

By now she has become mother of three children with Ranjan. But this backwoods dame never knew that her romantic hero was not a Bangladeshi citizen.

Sabitri knew that Ranjan hailed from Baliajuri village under Bakshiganj police station of Jamalpur district. Not only Sabitri but also her family and villagers knew the same.

Sabitri harbored doubts about suspicious movement of her husband in 2004 when Ranjan-led cadres carried out inhuman oppression on the villagers after the missing of grenades from the ULFA camp.

But a clever Ranjan pacified his worried wife by telling some cosmetic truths. But the real truth came to light last July 17 when the undercover Indian insurgent was captured by RAB in Bhairab of Kishoreganj district.

Sabitri exclaimed: ‘I passed thirteen years of conjugal life with him, slept with him, still I could not recognize him!’

But after the capture by RAB her husband’s identity was unveiled--it came clear to the public that his real name is Major Ranjan Chowdhury, hailed from a village of Dhubri district in Assam. But Sabitri has nothing to do now. She herself has become captive in the thick darkness of endless uncertainty.

Over 300 indigenous girls got entangled in ULFA love trap—all facing the same fate as Sabitri. They are now in grave danger being trapped in feigned romance of the ULFA cupids who presented fake identities and addresses.

Arati Mrong of Nalchapra village under Kalmakanda police station of Netrakona district is one of those broken-hearts. She married ULFA zonal commander Nripen Marak, an inhabitant of Dhubri of Assam.

The ULFA men had tried to settle here permanently by making false romance with the indigenous girls of hill areas not only of greater Mymensingh but also of Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj. The Indian insurgent-turned in-laws are living with prowess in Kalmakanda and Durgapur of Netrakona and Dhobaura and Haluaghat of Mymensingh.

Kajalrekha of Tiprapara near Lauachara under Moulovibazar district married Rajkanta Dev, commander of another separatist outfit, National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).

He was pushed back to India after being captured in a raid by RAB. Now Rajkanta has no chance or time to look after Kajalrekha and their three children. The forlorn woman now feels the hard facts of marrying an alien extremist.

The foreign ‘in-laws’ are now liabilities of the indigenous villages of the northeastern border areas. The unknown armed militants after committing terrorist activities in their own land come here in the dark of night from Meghalaya and Assam across the border.

As soon as the latter-day Robin Hoods leave their hideouts here, the villagers are to face the hassles of administration, more precisely the vigilance of police and intelligence agencies who ask about the militants.

BDST 1845 HRS, JULY 29, 2010.