GUWAHATI, Dec 2: The Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT), which became the first militant outfit of Assam to successfully complete peace negotiations with the State and Central Governments to sign an accord, will be disbanded formally on December 6, bringing an end to an era of violence in the Bodo dominated areas of the State. Giving a detailed account of the history of the BLT, the vice chairman of the outfit Chandan Brahma alias Kamal Mushahary told The Assam Tribune that after the failure of the Bodo accord signed between the State and the Central Government and the All Bodo Students? Union (ABSU) in 1993, a group of Bodo youths got together and formed the BLT in a meeting held at Dotoma in Kokrajhar district on June 18,1996. The prime objectives of the outfit included socio-economic development of the Bodo community and gaining political rights for the Bodos through the creation of a separate state of Bodoland. He clarified that unlike most of the major militant outfits of the region, the BLT never demanded secession from India.
Brahma said that the first chairman of the outfit was Silagang Brahma of Kokrajhar and after he died of cancer in June, 1998, the present chief of the outfit Hagrama Basumatary, who was the military secretary, took over the reigns of the outfit. Hagrama is scheduled to take over as the first chief of the interim Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) on December 7.
After its formation, the BLT was involved in a number of major acts of violence including a blast on the Brahmaputra Mail on the night of December 30,1996, in which more than 30 persons were killed and a number of others were injured. It may be mentioned here that the level of violence in the Bodo dominated areas of the State came down drastically after the signing of the cease-fire pact between the BLT and the Central Government.
The BLT and the other Bodo militant outfit National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) never saw eye to eye. The major difference between the outfits was that the BLT was in favour of creation of a separate state, while, the NDFB was fighting for sovereignty. The difference between the two militant outfits resulted in a number of fratricidal clashes between the members of the outfits, forcing the leaders of the outfits to meet in Shillong in 1999 to sign a pact to end fratricidal killings. The BLT vice chairman said that the pact lasted for more than a year and it ended after the killing of Bodo Sahitya Sabha president Binneswar Brahma by the NDFB. Binneswar Brahma was a widely respected person among the Bodo community and was close to the ABSU and other Bodo mass organisations and his killing put an end to the Shillong pact.
Brahma said that the process of talks between the Central Government and the BLT started after the outfit declared a unilateral cease-fire on June, 14, 1999 and the members of the outfit even offered to go to Kargil to fight the Pakistani forces. The cease-fire agreement between the Central Government and the BLT was signed on March 15, 2000 after at least 15 rounds of formal and informal talks and the State Government joined the process of talks only after that. The Memorandum of Settlement (MOS) between the Central and State Governments and the BLT was signed on February, 10 this year after 19 rounds of formal tripartite talks to pave the way for creation of Bodoland Territorial Council under the provisions of amended Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India. It may be mentioned here that the Bodo mass organisations including the ABSU supported the MOS and the students? body formally withdrew the separate state movement after the signing of the pact. Brahma said that the BLT gave up the demand for separate state as ?the Central and State Governments, after examining our problems, gave a proposal to solve the problems under the provisions of the Sixth schedule of the Constitution and after examining the proposal, we found that acceptable.? He hoped that the Accord would be a successful one.
The BLT vice chairman said that the outfit has more than 2500 cadres from different parts of the State and as per the accord, the Government is committed to rehabilitating all of them after the outfit is disbanded. He said that the BTC, on its part, would have to launch some orientation programmes for the cadres to provide them with self-employment avenues. Reacting to apprehensions expressed by certain sections that the BLT might not surrender all the weapons, Brahma said, ?we are fully cooperating with the Government for the implementation of the Accord and as per the provisions of the Accord, we shall surrender all weapons. The list of weapons at our disposal is being finalised and all weapons will be surrendered on December 6.? Brahma said that after the surrender of the weapons, it would be the responsibility of the Government to provide security to all the BLT cadres as the possibility of BLT cadres coming under attack from the NDFB cannot be ruled out.