GUWAHATI, June 3 ? The efforts of the Central and State Governments to bring the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) to the negotiating table are yet to yield the desired results primarily because of the adamant attitude of the chairman of the outfit, Ranjan Daimary alias Nabla Daimary, highly placed security sources said here.
Sources said that efforts are on through different channels to bring the militant outfit to the negotiating table but at the same time, the Central Government is of the view that there is no point talking with other leaders of the outfit until Ranjan Daimary comes forward for talks. According to reports available with the security agencies, several leaders of the outfit are in favour of talks for a peaceful solution of the problem and the issue was discussed in the last general council meeting of the NDFB, held in Bhutan in April, 2001. Sources said that from the interrogation reports of the arrested NDFB leaders, the security agencies came to know that most of the general council members were in favour of talks and the council also adopted a resolution to explore the possibility of talks with the Government of India. It may be mentioned here that during the same period, peace talks between the Central Government and Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) were also on and the Centre was in favour of holding talks with both the groups together. But ultimately, the efforts to bring the NDFB to the negotiating table failed as the chairman of the outfit was not very keen, sources added.
Commenting on the recent arrests of senior NDFB leaders, security sources said that the arrests of NDFB general secretary Gobinda Basumatary and vice-chairman Dhiren Boro would definitely affect the political wing of the outfit. But at the same time, sources admitted that their arrests would not affect the armed wing. Sources also said that the NDFB leaders did not surrender as reported in a section of the media as the security agencies were tracking them for a long time before their arrest. Gobinda Basumatary was arrested in Rangiya, while Dhiren Boro was arrested in Gangtok. However, after the arrests of these top leaders, the security agencies came to know details of the activities of the outfit and NDFB?s links with the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were also established. Sources said that three batches of NDFB cadres were sent to Pakistan for training from Dhaka and the last batch went in 2001. The NDFB chief is still in Dhaka, while the publicity secretary B Erakdao frequently visits Nepal, sources added.
On the arrests of two NDFB men in Kolkata, sources said that security agencies were keeping a tab on the head offices of the tea companies following reports that some of the companies operating in Assam were paying money regularly to the outfit, which led to the arrest of the militants.