Paresh Barua, the commander-in-chief of the military wing of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) which is seeking sovereignty for Assam from the Indian state, uses several other aliases namely Kamruj Zaman Khan, Nur-uz-Zaman and Zaman Bhai.
Born in 1957 at Jeraichakali Bhariagaon, Assam, was a soccer player in his young life. He studied at Dibrugarh University.
He worked for the railway from 1978 to 1982 before he joined the Oil India Limited at Duliajan for some time.
He is married to Boby Bhuyan Barua and have two children named Tahshim Khan and Akash Khan.
Another source says that his elder son is named Tahsan Ankur Khan Sunlee.
Barua became a member of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa)
in 1979.
On May 10, 1985, he and other members of his group carried out a bank robbery by shooting to death the manager and robbed Rs27, 549 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.
He stayed in Bangladesh for a few years from 1990 under the pseudonym “Kamruj Zaman Khan” but after a brief stay he left in April 2004 after being charged for arms smuggling in the 10 truck-loads of arms and ammunition haul in Chittagong.
He reportedly runs big businesses in Bangladesh, including a tannery, a chain of departmental stores, garment factories, travel agencies, shrimp trawlers and transport and investment companies besides a star hotel.
In September 2011, the Myanmarese Army was able to trace Barua along with some Ulfa members in the forest of north-west Myanmar.
Barua received injuries in a fight with them but he survived the onslaught.
Barua on April 30, 2013, who adheres uncompromisingly to the demand of the sovereignty of Assam renamed the organisation as the Ulfa (Independent).
