Leaders won’t jump parole if freed for peace talks: ULFA

GUWAHATI - The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) Monday pledged their jailed leaders would not jump parole if freed from prison to facilitate peace talks with the government.

“Let me assure the government and the people of Assam that if released on parole we shall never betray the trust… we shall not flee,” jailed ULFA vice chairman Pradeep Gogoi told journalists while being produced at a local court here.

Gogoi’s reaction follows reports that the Assam government was contemplating granting parole to at least eight top jailed ULFA leaders to facilitate peace talks, but New Delhi is apprehensive the rebel leaders might jump parole and go underground.

“Let the people of Assam and the government first take us into confidence… we are not going to break that trust,” the ULFA leader said.

Almost the entire top brass of the ULFA is now in jail - ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, Gogoi, deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah, “foreign secretary” Sasha Chouhdury, “finance secretary” Chitraban Hazarika, publicity chief Mithinga Daimary, cultural secretary Pranati Deka, and senior-most leader Bhimkanta Buragohain.

Buragohain, 70 years old, is presently lodged at the Tezpur jail in northern Assam, while the other seven rebel leaders are at the Guwahati Central Jail.

The only top leader of the ULFA still at large is commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, while the outfit’s general secretary Anup Chetia is in Bangladesh following his arrest in 1997.

The jailed ULFA leaders, including its chairman Rajkhowa, have been repeatedly saying that they were ready for talks but not in handcuffs - meaning they want them to be released.

“It is true there cannot be peace talks from inside the jail. Any talks could be possible only when we are freed,” Gogoi said.

The apprehension of the intelligence agencies that the ULFA leaders might jump parole is not without substance.

In January 1992, the first round of preliminary talks with a five-member ULFA delegation comprising Chetia and ‘central committee’ members Robin Neog, Kamal Bora, Siddhartha Phukan and Sabhan Saikia was held with then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in New Delhi.

All the five leaders were granted safe passage to attend the meeting and then allowed to leave to convince their other top leaders for the peace talks.

But the delegation led by Chetia jumped parole never to return.

“I would like to once again reassure that there would be no repeat of history this time. Let the government create that atmosphere and see the result,” Gogoi said.