Guwahati: In what has given a sense of relief to security agencies, the Ulfa general secretary Anup Chetia has been given the responsibility of leading the peace-talks with the government of India in place of its chairman Arbinda Rajkhowa.
Chetia, who was arrested in Dhaka in December 1997, had since then been in Bangladesh prisons after he was held guilty for illegally entering that country and for illegal possession of foreign currency. He has been deported to India recently from Bangladesh where he wanted political asylum.
The decision to lead Ulfa talks was taken formally in a central committee meeting which was attended by Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, vice-chairman Pradeep Gogoi, deputy commander-in-chief Raju Barua, foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury, finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika, and several other leaders of the outfit, including Mrinal Hazarika, Jiten Dutta and Pranjit Saikia.
Though, the outfit has ruled out that decision in this effect would marginalize the Ulfa chairman who was leading the peace-talks so far, security sources claimed that Chetia’s elevation to lead the peace-talks might subside the simmering dissension in the pro-talk faction of Ulfa to a large extent.
Pointing out that some hard-core Ulfa cadres were not happy over the way day-to-day affairs were being handled by the Ulfa leadership, security sources said that the situation had come to stage that some cadres were contemplating to join back to anti-talk faction of Ulfa lead by its commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah.
Referring intelligence inputs, security sources said that some Ulfa cadres of pro-talk faction had established contact with anti-talks faction to join them again.
Informing that a delegation of Ulfa will also meet the families of the martyrs, Chetia has also expressed happiness on this development and said that issues like granting of Schedule Tribe (ST) status to six indigenous communities of Assam also featured in the central committee meeting. He told reporters that he would soon meet with the organisations of the indigenous communities of the state to seek their suggestions. (EOM)
