Big news out of North-East India, where the leader of the infamous Black Widow insurgency is finally in police custody. According to Indian officials, Mihir Barman (whose nom de guerre is Jewel Gorlosa) was picked up in Bangalore while awaiting delivery of a false passport—a document he needed to reach Nepal for romantic reasons:
Gorlosa used up a large fraction of money his field operatives collected on women. He had reportedly killed his Dimasa wife to carry on an affair with a Naga woman before falling for a Nepalese social worker and media activist in Kathmandu.
He also allegedly spent $1,200 a month on “anti-aging treatments, beautification, and facelifts.” Judge for yourself whether that was money well-spent.
Paul Kvinta // Jun 9, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Thanks for posting this, Brendan. When I was in India last fall, a group (I guess it was Black Widow) unleashed a series of devastating blasts, worst terror attacks in the northeast in some time. Glad they caught the freak.
Brendan I. Koerner // Jun 9, 2009 at 12:48 pm
@Paul: Like so many of the insurgent leaders out that way, Barman used a legitimate gripe (i.e. mistreatment of his tribe by the Indian government) as a cover for criminal activity. I have a line about this in my book, where I discuss the United Liberation Front of Asom. My sense is that such groups are fully aware of the futility of their causes–they’re just in it for the rupees.