174 Assam militants have opted for safe passage — IGP

Though the ULFA top echelon were preventing its cadres from responding to the offer, he said 70 rebels contacted the police in Guwahati, 27 in Nagaon, 25 in Dhemaji, 10 each in Barpeta and Kokrajhar, besides eight each in Nalbari, North Lakhimpur, Bongaigaon and Barpeta districts in connection with the facility.

Stating that militants from both the armed and political wings, with many having arrest warrants issued against them, were among those who had responded so far, the IGP said their security would be taken care of bythe police ensuring they were not arrested or picked up by the army and other paramilitary forces.

Among the 70 ultras responding in Guwahati, 45 belonged to the ULFA, 14 to National Democratic Front of Bodoland and 11 to Bodo Liberation Tiger, followed by 27 ULFA in Nagaon, 25 in Dhemaji, eight in Barpeta, seven in goalpara and four in Kokrajhar, besides six and two ndfbs in kokrajhar and Barpeta districts, respectively.

The IGP described the response as a “very good positive one though the top leaders made negative comments on the offer”.

Though the lower and middle level cadres were willing to accept the Government’s offer, Ramachandran said, the top leaders had “tightened the security around their camps so that the workers could not run away”. He also said the district and subdivision administrations had been instructed to provide full security to the rebels responding to the passage offer.

On October 30 last, Governor Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha had announced a seven-day safe passage to ULFAchairman Arobinda Rajkhowa, C-in-C Paresh Barua and their cadres on humanitarian grounds. This was followed by a similar offer to ULFA and other underground outfits by the Chief Minister on November five.

However, the ULFA had rejected both the offers.