The pro-talks faction of the extremist United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has resented the State government’s indifference to the families of its slain members.
Seeking due recognition and rehabilitation of such families, the outfit’s general secretary Anup Chetia wondered if the ULFA has to form a government on its own to ensure that the families of its members get their due after almost four decades of “struggle”.
Addressing the group’s martyrs’ day at Dipila in north-central Assam’s Darrang district on Saturday, Mr. Chetia said the government appeared disinterested in keeping its promise of providing assistance to the families of the slain members. These families, he said, were going through a tough time.
“We have almost 1,900 families of our martyrs, including those of 50 members who have been missing from Bhutan for years now,” he said.
The armed forces of India and Bhutan had in December 2003 coordinated an operation to destroy camps of ULFA, National Democratic Front of Boroland and Kamatapur Liberation Organisation in southern Bhutan and flush out the extremists. Several extremists were killed, some surrendered while a few have remained untraced.
Five killed in 1991
Mr. Chetia said the outfit observed martyrs’ day for the first time after 28 years at Dipila, where the paramilitary personnel had killed five of its members on July 28, 1991. The five were Keshab Deka, Ganesh Deka, Chandra Baruah, Pratap Kalita and Karun Kalita.
The pro-talks ULFA faction, headed by its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, has been holding peace talks with the Centre for more than five years.
Most of its leaders have been arrested in Bangladesh and handed over to India since 2009.
The other faction, ULFA-Independent headed by its military chief Paresh Baruah, continues to wage war against what it calls ‘occupational India’. This group operates out of the camps of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) in Myanmar.
