MUSLIM UNITED LIBERATION TIGERS OF ASSAM (MULTA)

The Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA) was formed in the year 1996. It seeks to mobilise the Muslim youth in Assam to fight for the cause of Muslims. It has also been carrying out a propaganda campaign in support of a separate "Islamic homeland," which, they envision, would be a society based on Islamic values and morals.

MULTA has linkages with NSCN-IM and their cadres had been trained by the Naga group. It has also established close ties with the ULFA and there have been reports of some ULFA militants working as agents of MULTA. The outfit also has extensive links with Islamic jihadi groups in Bangladesh like the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI-B), Pakistan’s ISI operating in Bangladesh, and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the Bangladeshi intelligence agency.

Activities of MULTA have been reported from Dhubri, Nagaon, Morigaon and Darrang districts of Assam, with maximum reports coming from the Dhubri district. The MULTA militants use the passage along the International border in the Golokganj area of Dhubri district as a route to infiltrate into the State from Bangladesh.

The main activities of the outfit are extortions, murders, abductions and illegal arms manufacture and trade. The outfit, allegedly at the behest of the ISI, has also plans to create communal disturbances in Assam. The arrest of quite a few number of MULTA militants in Assam during the last few years indicate their increasing presence in the northeastern region.