Guwahati, Feb 11: A peace broker between the Centre and banned outfit ULFA was arrested on Monday in connection with an alleged plot to hijack an Indian Airlines aircraft from Lokopriyo Gopinath International Airport in Guwahati to Pakistan.

People's Consultative Group member Lachit Bordoloi was arrested in Upper Assam after his name had come up during interrogation of a ULFA militant, who had been arrested on Sunday. Bordoloi once represented the ULFA in negotiation with the Centre.

A police team had raided Bordoloi's house on Sunday, but did not find him at home. He was arrested in a place called Moran, seven hours from Guwahati. He will be brought to Guwahati tonight

The police had claimed a major breakthrough on Sunday after unearthing the hijack plan with the arrest of three suspects, *including an advocate, a journalist and a militant. Assam IGP (Special Branch) Khagen Sharma claimed the outfit, ULFA, had planned to skyjack an Air India plane from Guwahati Airport to Pakistan.

The ULFA cadre, Manoj Tamuly, who was arrested in Guwahati on Saturday night along with one pistol and four rounds of ammunition, allegedly named prominent advocate Nekibur Zaman, human rights activist Bordoloi and television journalist Pradeep Gogoi. All the three have been arrested within the last 36 hours.

The IGP claimed the militant had received the hijacking training in the jungles of Baska district of Assam, adjacent to Bhutan border. The training was imparted by one Rasik Ahmed, believed to be an ISI operative, Sharma claims.

The arrested ULFA cadre had confessed before media that the plan was to hijack the plane to Thimpu and from there a new set of ULFA men would take the aircraft to Rawalpindi.

ULFA, however, denied this and claimed this was a disinformation campaign to scuttle the political process in Assam.

"We have no such plan. There was no training for this purpose. This campaigning had been going on for quite some time and it was just an attempt to block the political process," ULFA publicity in-charge Rubi Bhuyan said in an e-mailed statement.