Jailed ULFA leaders together ‘positive step’: Gogoi

GUWAHATI - Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi Monday said the development of six top leaders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) being together in jail was a “positive step”, although he admitted there was no breakthrough yet in furthering the peace process.

“There is no breakthrough yet in so far as peace talks are concerned, but we are making all attempts for holding peace talks,” the chief minister told journalists referring to the six ULFA leaders lodged together at the Guwahati central jail.

After a Guwahati court Saturday remanded ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah to judicial custody, the two leaders shared the same prison cell with four other senior members of the outfit already lodged in the jail.

The four are ULFA vice president Pradeep Gogoi, self-styled foreign and finance secretaries Sasha Choudhury and Chitraban Hazarika and publicity chief Mithinga Daimary.

The chief minister, however, said talks, if any, have to be without preconditions.

“Let me make it clear once again that the ULFA must shun violence and there is no question of discussing the issue of sovereignty,” Gogoi said.

The chief minister also said the ULFA’s support base has weakened in recent years.

“The ULFA doesn’t have the sting it used to have in the past. The ULFA has become weak and lost its support,” Gogoi said.