GUWAHATI, Dec 2: With barely three days left for constitution of the interim Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), the Assam government has come out with an announcement that general amnesty will be granted to former militants of Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT). Talking to newsmen at Janata Bhawan today, Gogoi informed that in response to the BLT?s demand for withdrawal of cases pending against its leaders and cadres to facilitate setting up of the BTC, State government has decided to grant general amnesty to the former ultras. However, he pointed out that individual criminal cases pending against the former BLT ultras could only be withdrawn by the court and the general amnesty granted by the State government would help in this regard. . He said State government did not intend to pursue those cases in the court. A large number of cases are pending against the BLT leaders and cadres in the State for killing innocent people, causing damage to government property, blasting trains, railway tracks etc. during their armed struggle till late 1990s in demand for a separate State for the Bodo community. The peace process involving the BLT, Government of India and Assam government started in 1999 which culminated in signing of a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS), commonly referred to as BTC Accord, on February 10 this year for setting up of a tribal territorial council in Bodo dominated areas. As per the MoS the BLT leaders are set to form an interim Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) on December 7 at Kokrajhar in a ceremony which is scheduled to be graced by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani.
On the eve of formation of the interim BTC which will later hand over power to an elected Council, the former militant outfit BLT will be disbanded on December 6 at a function in Kokrajhar. All the leaders and cadres of the former outfit are supposed to surrender their arms before representatives of government and the civil society on that date to mark the beginning of a new era in the trouble-torn Bodo dominated areas in Assam.
Meanwhile, Sanmilita Janagosthiya Sangram Samity (SJSS) which is a banner organisation of 18 non-Bodo organisations opposed to formation of the BTC, has called for 72-hour Assam bandh beginning at the dawn of December 6 in protest against formation of the interim BTC. However, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi exuded confidence that the SJSS bandh call would not be able to halt formation of the interim BTC on December 7 next. He said that adequate measures have been taken to see that the SJSS did not succeed in creating fresh trouble in the so-called Bodo dominated areas.
The SJSS has been maintaining that Bodos being a minority community in the proposed BTC area should not have been granted the tribal council, which, they said, will be detrimental to the protection of political and economic rights of non-Bodo communities living in that area for hundreds of years. However, both Assam government and the Central government did not deem it fit to give much importance to the SJSS while the peace process with the BLT was on.