Negotiations with ULFA: Centre ready to talk even on sovereignty

GUWAHATI, January 16: The Government of India is ready to hold unconditional talks with the ULFA on any issue including the question of sovereignty. Disclosing this, the Joint Secretary (Northeast) of the Union Home Ministry, GK Pillai told The Assam Tribune here this evening that if talks with the ULFA materialised , the Government was confident of convincing the ULFA leaders that they had no case in their demand for sovereignty. The official, however, said although the ULFA had issued statements in the Press expressing its desire for talks, it was yet to send any feeler to the Government directly as was done by the NSCN(IM) and the BLT. "Usually when militant outfits are really sincere to hold talks with the Government, they first contact the Government through feelers instead of going to the Press," Pillai pointed out. He also expressed apprehension that it might very well be a "public posture" on part of the ULFA, which is fast losing ground amongst the masses in the State. When drawn to suggestions made by various quarters for Jammu and Kashmir type unilateral ceasefire declaration by the Centre against the ULFA, Pillai said that no such proposal was under consideration of the Government at this moment. Replying to a question regarding killings of relatives of ULFA members by secret killers, the Home Ministry official said "Government of India does not believe that killing of militants' relatives will have any impact on the outfit. Somebody among the surrendered ULFA men may be doing it to settle score with the ULFA. But the Government does not stand to gain anything from it." He also said that the Government would rather prefer to make appeal to the militants through their relatives to shun violence and come overground. He further said that the Government of India would like to advise the surrendered ULFA men to stop all such killings, if they are involved in it, as this would only lead to further worsening of the situation. On the possibility of joint operations against the militants in Bhutan, Pillai said that , "it is up to the Bhutan government to decide as we are not trying to impose anything on them. We are just telling them that it is in their interest, they should try evict militants from their soil." BLT talks: The talks with the BLT was on the right track and a package for the solution of the issue was under finalisation, Pillai said. He also said that the BLT was abiding by the ceasefire agreement and absolved them of the allegation about their involvement in the recent killings of Bhutanese nationals in the State.