Want to spend my life in Assam,says Chetia

ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia,lodged in a Bangladesh prison for the past 16 years,wants to return to his home state Assam as early as possible to spend the rest of his life here. Currently lodged in Kashimpur central prison,Chetia alias Golap Barua sent out a letter to some Bangladesh media houses on Wednesday expressing this desire.

“Seeking political asylum in Bangladesh was a political strategy that I had adopted several years ago and I have succeeded in it. The government of India has repeatedly failed in its attempt to extradite me to India. But now I have decided to my own initiative to go back to Assam. How long can I live in such a state of uncertainty?” said Chetia,who according to the Bangladesh media had smuggled his letter through another prisoner who was released earlier this week.

Currentlly lodged in a Bangladesh prison pending disposal of his application seeking political asylum in that country,Chetia was arrested in Dhaka along with two others in December 1997.

New Delhi has been trying to get the ULFA leader back in the country so that he could join the on-going peace talks between the ULFA faction led by its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and the government of India. On Wednesday,Shambhu Singh,joint secretary (Northeast) in the Home Ministry,had said that Chetia was expected to be handed over to India by the end of this year.