I-Day terrorists

The pattern is sickeningly familiar. As Independence Day draws closer, the cadres of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) reach for their guns and grenades in order, presumably, to over-awe the Indian state and strike a blow for Assam’s liberation. Last year the outfit’s list of activities included targeting schoolchildren gathered at a Dhemaji school for the Independence Day ceremony. On that occasion, six children and several adults paid the price for the ULFA’s egregious pathology.

That attack provoked even those who normally sympathise with the outfit to come out in condemnation. Yet the wave of revulsion that greeted the Dhemaji massacre, and indeed the talk of engaging with the Government of India, does not seem to have forced a change of strategy for these criminals masquerading as liberators. Last year, they had declared a general strike in the state and then went on to target cinema houses, gas pipelines and railway lines. This year, they have called for a general strike on August 15 and have already caused a great deal of damage and fear. A tea garden manager has been gunned down, pipelines have been destroyed, the railways have been targeted.

The onus is now on the Tarun Gogoi government to ensure that Independence Day passes by without event in the state. It must ensure that Assam is not held hostage to a bunch of lumpens on this important national occasion. The state government and chief minister needs a reality check. The time for adopting resolutions in the assembly “appealing to the ULFA to shun violence” is over; and the time to urge the “Centre to expedite negotiations with the banned outfit for lasting peace” has not come. These are desperate men who have well demonstrated their levels of barbarism. There can be no negotiating with them.