The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam will meet Home Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi on February 10 to discuss modalities for the peace talks that is on the anvil between the outfit and the government.Talking to the media for the first time after the outfit decided to hold an unconditional dialogue with the government in its general council meeting on January 30, the leadership of the outfit said that Chidambaram had invited them for the meeting.
Five persons, including three women, were killed and 75 others injured when the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam struck with vengeance by triggering an explosion at the weekly market at Kumarikata in Baksa district of Assam bordering Bhutan hills at around 1.20 pm on Sunday. The bomb was planted on a bicycle.
Altogether 58 militants, including 52 from the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and six from two Naga rebels groups, gave up arms before the Army in two separate surrender ceremonies on Tuesday.
After undergoing a routine medical check up at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital, Rajkhowa told media person, "The overall situation is now conducive for talks and we appeal to both India and Bangladesh to facilitate the participation of Chetia in the talks by releasing him from captivity."
Bangladesh's cabinet on Monday approved a landmark extradition treaty with India, nearly nine months after the two countries inked the deal, a move that could lead to the handing over of several jailed Indian militant leaders like ULFA's Anup Chetia.
The slain youths were employees of a contractor engaged in on going construction of Assam University's satellite campus at Satmile in the hill district.
Police on Tuesday recovered 30 grenades along with equal number of explosives laden in an auto rickshaw that was coming from Daranga Mela on the India-Bhutan border in Baksa district of Assam to Ghograpar in Nalbari district where some ULFA militants were awaiting the consignment. Police, which intercepted the auto rickshaw midway near Bhutan bus stop at Rangiya in Kamrup district, arrested two suspected ULFA militants.
Armed forces have heightened security all over Assam on the eve of the 'Raising Day' of the banned ULFA on Monday. All public vehicles moving on State Highways have been placed under the scanner by security forces while check posts have been set up on the way to all vital installations and VVIP residential areas to prevent possible a strike by the ULFA.
Defence Public Relations Officer Lt Colonel Chiranjeet Konwar said the militants ambushed the convoy of 16 Assam Rifles stationed in the district near Wakka at around 1.45 pm, killing one jawan on the spot while injuring nine others.
The surrender reflects the success of renewed intensive operations by the security forces, claimed the Army.
In the operations, besides ULFA, troops are also hitting sanctuaries and bases of outfits like National Democratic front of Bodoland and Manipur-based Kangleipak National Liberation Front.
33 persons were injured in three incidents of bomb blasts allegedly triggererd by the United Liberation Front of Asom in Assam on Sunday.
The proscribed known to have camps in Mon district of Nagaland, which is dominated by the NSCN-IM rebels, now in ceasefire with Government of India. The police said the reason behind the group clash between members of two insurgent outfits was not known.
As Assam celebrated Rongali Bihu (spring festival) Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi took the opportunity to make a renewed appeal to armed insurgents groups still at large to come forward for dialogue with the government.
The police said both suspects were unemployed and drug addicts and were used by the ULFA to plant the bomb in lieu of money
Two policemen were injured in a bomb blast, triggerred by the anti-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom, at Doomdooma township in Tinsukia district of Assam.
The Assam police no longer consider the anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom led by Paresh Barua a major threat because of the depleting base of the outfit that 'doesn't have any more dedicated and committed cadres', said a highly-placed source in the state police.
The Centre should focus on achieving peace either through long-term ceasefire agreements or sustained military operations. Military operations which are just intermittent responses to particular incidents won't lead anywhere, says Devanik Saha.
Senior superintendent of police, Guwahati city, informed that a bomb planted by suspected United Liberation Front of Asom militants rocked Anthgaon area in the heart Guwahati at around 12.30 pm on Monday.
"The role of external forces in the insurgency is obvious given that top ULFA leaders are sitting in Bangladesh, thanks to the ISI and DGFI."
However, no untoward incident was reported till noon.
There is a vertical split in the proscribed outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam with its hardliner faction led by fugitive commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah forming a new 'central committee' by dropping its eight top leaders including its Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, who is now engaged in peace talks with the government.
Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gagoi has been requested to chair the meeting of the security agencies on weekly basis. "I was told that he chaired one such meeting on January 10.
The army has re-deployed 3,500 troops from Misa in Arunachal Pradesh to Sibsagar and Dhemaji districts, where many Hindi-speaking people were gunned down.
The banned outfit ambushed an army vehicle with a powerful bomb near remote Asomiyagaon village.
United Liberation Front of Asom anti-talk faction on Monday accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi of secretly giving away Assam's land to Bangladesh in the recent land swap agreement.
United Liberation Front of Assam 'general secretary' Anup Chetia, currently in a jail in Bangladesh, will soon be handed over to India, the group's 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa claimed on Thursday.
The members of the insurgent groups -- United Liberation Front of Assam, National Democratic Front of Boroland, Rabha National Liberation Front, Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, Communist Party of India-Maoist, National Santhal Liberation Army, Adivasi Dragon Fighters and National Liberation Front of Bengali -- joined the mainstream in front of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at a programme.
The Supreme Court found enough grounds to order a CBI probe into 1,528 extra-judicial killings in Manipur between 2000 and 2012.
Though the run-up to the ULFA raising day this year was violence-free unlike in previous years, the outfit targetted the Kolkata-bound Kamrup Express by planting an improvised explosive devise on a bicycle in Namrup railway station in Dibrugarh district on Monday morning. The IED was detected by the 44 Field Regiment and defused, the sources said.
In the run-up to its Raising Day on April 7, the anti-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom is likely to indulge in subversive activities to create panic in Assam, a top police official said on Monday.
Of the 42 injured, the condition of 32 was described as serious. Of the four wounded children, a 10-year-old was in a serious condition.
Sinha said the BSF will also hand over a list of 172 Indian insurgent camps in Bangladesh and ask the neighbouring country to dismantle them at the earliest.
Insurgent groups like ULFA and NSCN-K have been using Myanmar as safe sanctuary and have set up bases there, despite that country's repeated assurances not to allow its territory for activities inimical to India, Government said on Tuesday.
Under attack from the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (anti-talks) faction over its failure to punish culprits behind the secret killings of innocent family members of ULFA members that took place in Assam between 1996 and 2001, the Congress government in Assam on Tuesday blamed former Assam chief minister and Asom Gana Parishad leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for allowing the gruesome episode to take place in the state.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday placed Anup Chetia, founder member of banned United Liberation Front of Assam militant group, under arrest in connection with a nearly three-decade-old murder case registered by the central probe agency.
Stepping up violence ahead of Independence Day, United Liberation Front of Assam blew up a gas pipeline, a steel bridge and a transformer across Assam, police said in Guwahati on Tuesday.
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