GUWAHATI, Dec 31: United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa has said that his outfit is ready to hold negotiations with the government if its jailed leaders are released to pave the way for peace talks.
“I have met Arabinda Rajkhowa and other leaders in the prison and they told me they were ready for peace talks, but made it clear that negotiations can be held only if they are released from jail,” Lachit Bordoloi, a member of the ULFA-constituted People’s Consultative Group (PCG), said today.
Rajkhowa and Baruah joined four other ULFA leaders already at the Guwahati jail — self-styled foreign secretary Sashadhar Choudhury, finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika, vice-president Pradeep Gogoi and publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary.
“The ULFA leadership want a respectable settlement to the insurgency problem and expects the government to create a congenial atmosphere for peace talks,” said Bordoloi. Similar views were echoed by Rajkhowa’s wife Kaveri Kachari.
The government on its part is undecided on granting parole to the arrested ULFA leaders after the bitter experience in 1991 when New Delhi granted parole to the outfit’s general secretary Anup Chetia in the interest of peace talks but jumped it and escaped to Bangladesh.
Arrested ULFA publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary also said peace talks between the government and the outfit could not be successful unless a proper environment was created for dialogue on the ULFA issue.
“Peace talks cannot be held with ULFA leaders in jail. They have to be free and an environment should be created for dialogue,” said Daimary when he was taken to Guwahati Medical College Hospital for a check-up yesterday. Making a swipe at PCG member Lachit Bordoloi, Daimary said PCG had not been entrusted with the task of taking the peace process forward. “We doubt Lachit Bordoloi’s enthusiasm for peace talks,” said the ULFA publicity secretary. THE SENTINEL
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