Paresh Baruah

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Paresh Baruah (or Paresh Barua), born in 1957 at Jeraichakali Bhariagaon, Assam, India, is the self-syled commander-in-chief of the militant group ULFA.

He worked as a railway porter from 1978 to 1982, and as a laborer for Oil India Limited at Duliajan for some time. On 10th May 1985, he and other members of his group carried out an armed bank robbery. They shot and killed the manager, took Rs. 27,549 in cash and fled the scene in a vehicle taken from someone they had kidnapped. In 1989 he came in contact with Nagaland Rebels and Kachin rebels based in Myanmar, who provided strategic training to his group.

In 1990, his group became engaged in extortion. In an interview, he mentioned that Tata Tea refused their extortion attempt, although later Tata Tea paid Rs. 10 million to another group, Bodo Security Police, to get an abducted manager released.

Before joining ULFA, Paresh was a soccer player, who played for Dibrugarh district, and for the Dibrugarh University. Eventually he becoming the most dependable full-back of the Dibrugarh Railway team. Today he is the leader of the armed wing of ULFA.

He is said to maintain communications with Assamese author Indira Goswami.

Paresh Barua has lived in Bangladesh since 1990, using alias Kamruj Zaman Khan. He is said to own huge business empire in Bangladesh that includes a tannery, a chain of departmental stores, garment factories, travel agencies, shrimp trawlers and transport and investment companies besides a star hotel. His personal worth is estimated at Rs. 300 million. Barua lives in a posh Dhaka locality with his wife Sufia Begum, and his two children Tahshim Khan and Akash Khan.