An Indian separatist group has claimed that a paramilitary trooper who shot dead seven of his colleagues in Jammu and Kashmir before being killed had been a covert member for eight years. 

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) constable Samarendra Deka went berserk Saturday night killing seven, including a company commander, before being shot dead in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district.

Deka hailed from Assam and was inducted into CRPF last year. The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) claimed that Deka had been a member of its "military intelligence" since 1996.

"We declare him (Deka) a martyr. He is among 150 such members of our group who are now working with different security agencies across India," self-styled ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah was quoted Tuesday in newspapers as saying.

"The act was carried out by Deka under orders of Raju Baruah, who heads the military intelligence wing," said the statement published by Assamese newspapers here.

Paresh Baruah and other top ULFA leaders are widely believed to be operating from bases outside India to carry out hit-and-run guerrilla strikes on security forces in Assam. Indian officials say that ULFA leaders are based in Bangladesh but Dhaka denies such allegations.

Paresh Baruah admitted that Indian security forces had managed to infiltrate ULFA. "We are doing the same by infiltrating our men into the security forces."

--Indo-Asian News Service