The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has done it again – it has brutally murdered two Assamese youth after they were being held "guilty" of some crime by what can be described as a kangaroo court of the outfit. While it is a fact long established that the ULFA - and for that matter all such militant outfits – cannot be trusted, the people of Assam have definitely not accepted or endorsed what the outfit and its leaders have done by killing two of its own members for some "crime" allegedly committed by the duo. The history of ULFA, and most such groups, is chequered with crimes and brutal acts. Several thousand people, including several hundred police personnel and members of the security forces, have lost their lives in the senseless violence committed by the ULFA. And, over 99 per cent of the victims – most of them law-abiding citizens – belonged to the indigenous communities of Assam. The worst incident was the Dhemaji explosion of 2004, when 12 innocent school children had lost their lives in a powerful bomb explosion triggered off by the ULFA as hundreds of school children of the town had assembled to take part in the Independence Day celebrations. It was that one single incident which had wiped out whatever little support or sympathy a microscopic segment of the people of Assam had towards the ULFA. That the ULFA, unlike the Naga and Meitei outfits which are headed by highly qualified leaders who have the capability to negotiate peace with the Government of India at the highest level, it is common knowledge that the ULFA comprises and is led mostly by high school and college dropouts. What can be surmised from the poorly drafted statements that the outfit occasionally sends out to the media is that most of its leaders do not have a proper understanding of Assam's history, not to speak of its economy. Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, who had immediately after assuming office last year sent out positive signals to the ULFA leaders to come forward for talks, needs to take a tough stand in the larger interest of Assam and the Assamese people.