Bhutan flushout: ULFA asks about missing cadres

While Bhutan had reportedly handed over some ULFA cadres to the Indian authorities, family members say they are still missing

One day after the Gauhati High Court directed the Union of India to submit before it the original documents pertaining to the handing over of some ULFA members to it by Bhutan, the ULFA today said it had no faith on the Indian judicial system because it had not helped find the whereabouts of its cadres missing since the Bhutan operations in December 2003.

ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa today said the government of India was deliberately delaying the process after the Gauhati High Court took up a writ petition filed by family members of six of its members who had remained missing since December 2003.

The Gauhati High Court, on examining documents submitted to it by the government of India in June last year, did not find them satisfactory and had yesterday asked the government to submit the original documents on March 30.

Meanwhile, the ULFA today also said it was not happy at the delay in finding out the truth about what exactly happened to some of its cadres who were captured by the Royal Bhutan Army during the December 2003 flushout and subsequently handed over to the Indian authorities.

While the Bhutan government had reportedly handed over some ULFA cadres to the Indian authorities following Operation All-Clear in December 2003, family members of some of the ULFA cadres, who reportedly remained missing thereafter, approached the Gauhati High Court seeking to know what happened to them. Since the Bhutan government had said it had handed over all the captured ULFA militants to the Indian authorities following the flush-out, the onus is now on the government of India to either produce them before the court or tell what happened to them. With the High Court taking up the writ petitions, the Government of India on June 30 last year submitted a list on a sealed envelope and claimed its privilege against making it public. Acting Chief Justice DK Biswas and Justice HN Sharma, whose court inspected the lists yesterday is understood to have not found them satisfactory and directed the Government of India to submit the original documents relating to the Bhutan government8217;s handing over of the ULFA militants.