Top United Liberation Front of Asom leaders on Friday met Home Minister P Chidambaram and presented the outfit's 'charter of demands', setting the ball rolling for peace talks with the government to bring about a lasting solution to Assam's three-decade old insurgency problem.
The general secretary and a founder leader of the United Liberation Front of Assam, Anup Chetia alias Golap Barua who is now lodged in a Bangladesh jail because of his pending application for political asylum, now wants to come back to his birth place Assam where he wants to live for the rest of life.
Paresh Baruah, the military chief of the banned outfit United Liberation Front of Asom, seems to be enjoying China's hospitality as his presence in the neighbouring country has been confirmed by the arrested head of a Manipuri militant group. United National Liberation Front chief R K Sanayaima alias Meghen, arrested in December in Bihar by the National Investigation Agency, confessed during interrogation that he had met the elusive 'commander-in-chief' of ULFA.
Centre's interlocutor for peace talks with northeast militants P C Haldar on Thursday said he was "optimistic about taking the peace talks with the United Liberation Front of Asom forward as they have expressed their willingness for unconditional talks."
After scaling down its original demand for 'sovereignty', the militant United Liberation Front of Asom wants Assam to be declared a 'tribal state' by granting the Scheduled Tribe status to at least six more ethnic communities.
Security personnel recovered one AK 56 rifle, two magazines, one grenade, a pistol and a cellphone from the slain militant identified as Rajib Saikia.
It sparked a fire and caused extensive damage.
The pro-talks faction of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom faces public ire over the killings of five youths from Kakopathar area in Tinsukia districts early this year and whose bodies were dug out from a pit inside a jungle in the area recently.
Sitting MLAs from various political parties in Assam have received extortion demand from the anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom.
At least 20 key members of the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), along with their family members, have surrendered, giving a boost to the ongoing negotiations with the militant outfit.
The militants probably tergetted a few army vehicles parked there but the grenade hit an auto rickshaw coming from the opposite direction.
A joint team of police and the army shot dead a sergeant major Madan Koch of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom at Kathalbari in West Garo Hills of Meghalaya on Sunday.
The security sources said the surrendered militant, Pranab Moran, who used to run a grocery shop in the locality, was preparing to sleep inside his shop when two suspected ULFA militants came calling.
After being in judicial custody since 2003, ULFA ideologue and 'political advisor' Bhimkanta Buragohain was on Friday granted bail by a district court, a step seen as another effort to broker peace with the group fighting for a 'sovereign' state.
"The ULFA has crossed all limits by killing innocent civilians in the state. It is time the people stand up together and voice their rejection of the group and its demand for a sovereign state," APW secretary Abhijit Sharma said.
The ULFA militant was killed in the Manabhum Reserve Forest in Arunachal Pradesh following a gun battle with army personnel.
United Liberation Front of Asom chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa on Sunday said his outfit was ready to sit for peace talks without any preconditions for an "honourable" solution to relieve the people of Assam of their suffering.
United Liberation Front of Asom chief Arabinda Rajkhowa was released from the Guwahati Central Jail, two days after his bail plea was granted by a designated TADA court.
ULFA marks November 28 as protest day.
An United Liberation Front of Asom militant was beaten to death and two others were critically injured by a mob on Monday when the trio had allegedly come to extort money from an official of the district Agriculture Marketing Board in Assam.
Meanwhile, a joint team of police and the Army yesterday arrested two ULFA militants at Sitara along India-Bhutan road in Rangiya under Kamrup district.
The ULFA spokesman termed the allegation part of conspiracy by the army to carry out subversion in the state and blame it on ULFA.
Communist Party of India general secretary A B Bardhan called upon the Central government to initiate steps to hold unconditional talks with the militant outfits in the North East, including the United Liberation Front of Asom, for the sake of peace and development of the region. "The government must open dialogue with the militant outfits, including the ULFA, at the earliest, without setting any pre-condition," Bardhan told the media in Guwahati.
Eyewitnesses said the militants fired six to eight rounds killing the two on the spot.
Arabinda Rajkhowa hoped that the process of political dialogue for resolving the 'Assam-India conflict', which was stalled in 2006, would be resumed and completed in the new year.
The killed teacher hails from Nagaon Tinali under Pengeri police station. He is survived by young wife and a five-year-old daugher.
The banned United Liberation Front of Asom on Friday gave a strong message to the government that it may be down off late because of the reverses it has suffered in Bangladesh and in the wake of arrest of so many of its top leaders, saying it is definitely not.
Bangladesh's envoy to India has sought immediate steps for upgrading the New Delhi mission's security fearing retaliation by United Liberation front of Assam in the wake of the Indian Border Security Force arresting two top militant leaders, who were reportedly earlier detained in his country.
With the anti-talks faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam regaining strength, security forces in Assam have been put on high alert to mount vigil against any attempt by the outfit to disrupt peace during the forthcoming festive season in the state.
Against the backdrop of reports of surrender of ULFA chief Arabinda Rajkhowa, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said the media was creating confusion by "speculative" reporting.
The offensive came as the Central government called off the truce with the outfit earlier in the day.
The decision was taken in view of continued violence and extortion by ULFA cadres, Union home ministry officials said.
ULFA has planned a series of strikes on securitymen and public installations on that date, the day the insurgent outfit "raised its own army" in 1979, the sources said.
The peace process between the United Liberation Front of Asom and the Centre appears to have hit a roadblock with both sides refusing to back down from their respective stands.
This is not the first time that the ULFA insisted on a plebiscite as a way to end the imbroglio over whether people of Assam need or aspire for 'sovereignty' or not.
The ULFA threat comes following a story telecast by the channel that alleged that the militant group was willing to call off the boycott of the forthcoming National Games in Guwahati in lieu of money from Assam government.
At least 13 persons were injured, including two policemen, when an explosion triggered by suspected militants belonging to the anti-talks faction of United Liberation Front of Assam rocked Doom Dooma township of eastern Assam's Tinsukia district on Thursday evening.
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