Jammu, Feb. 11 -- The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which trained a batch of Assam's United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants in 1991-92, considered the rebel group's chief Paresh Baruah a prize catch and did not want to offend him even after he was unwilling to take the agency's commands on conducting operations in the northeastern state, claims a new book. Baruah now heads the anti-talks ULFA (Independent) faction and is believed to be hiding somewhere in China's Yunnan province.

The first batch of ULFA militants was trained in Pakistan in 1991-92 in three groups comprising a total of about 40 cadres. One group was trained near Peshawar and other functionaries were taken for short visits to Kandahar in Afghanistan and the ...