Assam signals Ulfa talks in two months

From The Telegraph September 26 , 2010

Sept. 25: The Assam government today said that talks with Ulfa would start in the next two months. The announcement came a day after 15 middle-level Ulfa leaders, apparently “pushed back” with their families by Bangladesh, were handed over to Assam police by the BSF in Meghalaya. “We are confident now that the (peace) process is moving in the right direction and formal talks with Ulfa will start within the next two months,” chief minister Tarun Gogoi said. “We are ready to offer safe passage to those who are keen on talks.” He said efforts were on through the Centre’s interlocutor, P.C. Haldar, to start the peace initiative. Pro-talks Ulfa leader Jiten Dutta had said yesterday that these 15 wanted peace talks and had left the outfit following differences with commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, who is against talks. One of the 15, Ulfa publicity secretary Anu Buragohain, told journalists over the phone from an undisclosed location today that the group had fled Bangladesh because of the “situation in that country” and had not surrendered or been arrested. Gogoi did not clarify whether the Ulfa leaders had surrendered or whether they had been handed over and arrested. “We have only come to know that some senior leaders have left their camps in Bangladesh, which is a good sign,” he said. BSF sources said the 15 leaders and their wives and children had been picked up near Meghalaya’s border with Bangladesh on Wednesday night after they were “pushed back” by Bangladesh Rifles. An official in Shillong, though, claimed Assam police had facilitated the rebels’ efforts to return with the help of surrendered Ulfa militants and the outfit’s pro-talks faction. He said the militants and their family members had been kept “at a safe place in and around Nalbari” in western Assam. This group is likely to join the proposed peace process under Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa when it starts, sources said. A senior official in New Delhi said more Ulfa leaders might cross over from Bangladesh to join the talks. Paresh Barua had yesterday said the 15 were “trapped” by “Indian forces”. Barua is now left with just a handful of senior leaders, such as Antu Chowdang, Khanindra Medhi and Jibon Moran, who are believed to be operating from camps in Myanmar. Rebel suicide Ulfa suffered another embarrassment when cadre Ajit Tanti, 30, hanged himself from a tree in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar district last night, apparently after being refused a job at a tea garden. “Ajit was frustrated with the Ulfa. In the Myanmar training camps, he was treated as a slave by Ulfa leaders,” a friend said. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100926/jsp/nation/story_12983395.jsp