More than five years after it had triggered a bomb blast at the Independence Day parade ground in upper Assam’s Dhemaji town in which 13 people, including 10 children and three women, were killed on August 15, 2004, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) on Sunday tendered an apology to the people of Assam for denying its hand in the blast immediately after the blast.
In a statement e-mailed to the local media, self-styled Commander-in-Chief of the ULFA, Paresh Barua, described the Dhemaji blast as “the most tainted chapter of ULFA’s revolutionary history” and “the most brutal and heinous murder of children and women.”
Barua claimed that ULFA had denied its hand in the blast as those ULFA cadres who had triggered it, misinformed higher-ups in the militant outfit that the blast was the handiwork of the “occupational forces.”
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“We did not realise that our statement issued at that time was incorrect. However, later when the real truth came to light, we realised that our statement was incorrect. So we seek the apology of the people of Assam,” Barua said.
The ULFA military chief alleged that those cadres who were involved in the Dhemaji blast had already been expelled from the outfit.