Guwahati, March 8: The banned Ulfa, which last night struck serially at several installations across the state, virtually hit for a six Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s robust offer to travel to Bhutan to hold talks with the outfit.
Talking to The Telegraph late this evening, Ulfa’s commander-in-chief Paresh Barua not only owned up to the attacks on oil installations in Digboi, Duliajan and Bongaigaon but also said such attacks would continue till the outfit’s conditions for talks were met.
Reacting to Gogoi’s recent offer — made in the Assembly on March 6 — to travel to Bhutan or elsewhere to initiate peace talks, the Ulfa supremo said: “Let it be clear. We are also for talks but only if our demands are met. We want tripartite talks and under UN supervision.”
Asked why the outfit had singled out oil installations in its blaze of attacks on Saturday, Barua said these were targeted to “avenge the economic exploitation” of the state since the advent of the Raj.
Adding as an afterthought, Barua said rather than a UN observer, the outfit could settle for an English observer “since the problems we are facing today have been left behind by the English”.
This is the first time that the supremo of the Ulfa’s armed wing has called for British intervention. Barua made it clear that it was not right to compare the problems of Assam with those of Nagaland while airing his views on the talks between the NSCN(I-M) and the Centre. “There can be no comparison between the problems of Nagaland and Assam. They have to be viewed differently,” Barua said. Barua’s statement assumes significance because the NSCN(I-M) is considered to be the “mother” of all insurgent outfits in the region.
The Assam government answered the Ulfa salvo by asserting that it would not take things lying down. “It is very unfortunate. The Ulfa has time and again rejected our gesture for peace. But we also want to make one thing clear. We will deal with the emerging situation firmly,” government spokesman Ripun Bora said.
Bora said strong instructions had been issued to all district administrations to beef up security to the “maximum possible level” and take stern action against those involved.
The state government, according to Bora, had information about the possibility of such attacks. “It is not humanly possible to check everything. It was very well-planned,” he said.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today held a high-level meeting to review the situation. He has instructed senior officials to take adequate measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
Talking to this correspondent, Gogoi said he would write to New Delhi to create a dedicated force to man the Indo-Bhutan border. Without such a force, such acts would continue, he said. Unified Command sources said the outfit carried out the series of attacks to signal a comeback and dispel reports that they were in retreat.
The comeback, they said, started with the firing of a mortar in Dispur’s capital complex on October 27, followed by one in the city on December 25. These were capped by the attack on the Indian Air Force base in Borjhar last month.
The attacks, they said, proves that the outfit was in possession of an assorted stockpile of arms. In Digboi, the Ulfa used a missile (whether it was a rocket-propelled grenade or a mortar is yet to be confirmed); at Kathalguri an improvised explosive devise was used and the attack on the police patrol outpost in Darangiri in Goalpara was executed with sophisticated rifles.
The same rapid-fire weapons were also used to attack the settlement of Hindi-speaking community near Darangiri. The sources said the frequency of the attacks had increased after the Naga talks entered a “decisive phase”.
“The Ulfa is well aware that once a solution to the Naga problem is hammered out, pressure, both within and outside, will mount on it to sit for talks. They will surely not sit for talks till their conditions are met as Paresh Barua has said,” the source said.