ULFA Chief, along with 10 Others, Handed over to India
Bangladeshi security agencies have handed over Arabinda Rajkhowa, chairman of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), to Border Security Force (BSF) at an outpost along the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya.
Rajkhowa was handed to India along with 10 others including his wife, two children and ULFA’s military operations chief Raju Barua at the Dawki outpost in the Jaintia hills district of Meghalaya.
Other people handed over to BSF include Rajkhowa’s bodyguard, Barua’s wife and son, and wife and daughter of ULFA’s foreign secretary Sashadhar Choudhury.
All the eleven were brought to Guwahati for completing legal formalities.
It should be noted that Rajkhowa, 53, had earlier expressed his readiness for peace talks with the Centre and had reportedly been holding talks with Union Home Ministry and intelligence officials on modality of talks.
On the contrary, Paresh Barua, ULFA’s commander-in-chief, opined against the peace talks, advocating continuation of the armed insurgency.
According to reports, he told some Assamese intellectuals close to him that he did not support the proposed talks as sovereignty of Assam was not one of the per-conditions.
Arrested publicity secretary of ULFA Mithinga Daimary also said that talks without Barua would be useless.
“It is possible to hold talks within the framework of the Constitution but talks without Barua would be unrealistic. Sovereignty must be the basis for talks though whether it will be achieved or not, the future alone can tell,” Daimary said at the Kamrup Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court.
Rajkhowa had founded ULFA along with four others people on April 7, 1979. He was arrested in Bangladesh on Monday.
