Rajkhowa keen to meet father but won’t take govt’s ‘humiliating’ offer

Outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa is keen to see his ailing father currently undergoing treatment but rejected a ‘‘safe passage’’ offer made by the state government to facilitate the same.

Reacting to the offer broadcast on March 29 from AIR’s Dibrugarh station, Rajkhowa, currently believed to be in Bhutan, said the state had lost all moral right to show him such magnanimity and that he was ‘‘ashamed’’ of it. A former school teacher, he said that he last saw his parents on September 17, 1984, ‘‘the day I touched their feet to seek their blessings and set out on the struggle’’.

‘‘I am definitely eager to see my father, but consider the government’s safe passage offer as conspiratorial. I feel humiliated by the government offer and reject the same,’’ Rajkhowa said. CM Tarun Gogoi had offered a safe passage to Rajkhowa enabling him to visit the Assam Medical College Hospital in Dibrugarh, where Uma Rajkonwar, 102, a noted freedom fighter, is currently undergoing treatment.