ULFA cadres finding armed struggle futile: CM

“I am happy that more and more ULFA cadres and other insurgent outfits have realised that armed struggle has retarded the growth of Assam,” Gogoi, in an official statement issued on Wednesday, said.

Making an appeal to all other ULFA cadres as well as those of other insurgent groups to give up violence and come forward for talks within the framework of the Indian Constitution, Gogoi said his government would provide all facilities to bring them to the mainstream.

Meanwhile, ULFA chief Paresh Barua on Wednesday said no leader of the organisation at the battalion-level or any other level barring the central executive committee had the authority to declare a ceasefire or sit for talks with the government. Barua called up media offices in Guwahati and denied government claims that the ULFA was facing a split and said the ceasefire move was part of a conspiracy to generate doubts of the ULFA leadership over its lower level leaders.

The ULFA chief also claimed that Mrinal Hazarika, a former commander of the outfit’s 28th Battalion, who was released on bail last week, currently had no portfolio or assignment in the ULFA after he was arrested. Interestingly, the ULFA had in the past six months lost over 75 of its cadres, who were mostly killed by security forces.

Of them again, over 60 belonged to the 28th Battalion which was responsible for massacre of a large number of Hindi-speaking people in the Upper Assam districts.

The ceasefire announcement from the ULFA’s 28th Battalion came within one week of the Chief Minister declaring a new five-point policy under which rebels willing to surrender would have to surrender arms, stay in designated camps and refrain from extorting money and collecting donations.