Tezpur/Guwahati, Dec. 28: Ulfa leader Bhimkanta Buragohain struck a defiant note two days after making a plea for peace, saying he would await instructions from the outfit?s chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and commander-in-chief Paresh Barua on his ?future course of action?. Buragohain, in his eighties, was presumed dead until the army paraded him and three more Ulfa members before the media in Tezpur on Friday. He was produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate along with his comrades this afternoon and remanded in police custody for five days.
The veteran Ulfa member?s remark on being asked about his plans led to speculation that he may not have voluntarily appealed to all militants to lay down arms. Buragohain even claimed he did not surrender.
The former army jawan, who founded the Ulfa in 1979 along with five more militant leaders, had said at the army?s Four Corps headquarters that violence was not the solution to any problem. Reading out a written speech, he said: ?The path that we led is wrong.?
Buragohain urged ?all Ulfa members, even Paresh Barua, to think deeply?that peace does not come through the barrel (of the gun), but through negotiations?.
The army yesterday handed over the Ulfa leader and his three comrades ? political adviser Robin Handique, assistant publicity secretary Bolin Das and the militant group?s camp doctor in Bhutan, Amarjit Gogoi ? to Tezpur police.
The police registered cases against them under sections 121, 121 (A) and 122 of the IPC, read with sections 25/27 of the Arms Act and 10/13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The Ulfa militants? counsels ? Bijan Mahajan, Bhaskar Dev Konwar, Raju Pradhan, Nekibur Zaman ? opposed the police?s request to the additional chief judicial magistrate to remand the quartet in custody for 14 days and insisted that details of pending cases, if any, against them be produced in court.
The magistrate asked the police to allow the families and counsels of the four Ulfa leaders to meet them while in police custody and make arrangements for their medical treatment. He cautioned the investigating officer against ?physical and mental harassment? of the rebels.
The army said Buragohain, who is called Mama by everyone in the Ulfa ranks, and his comrades were captured by the Royal Bhutan Army on December 18 and handed over to India on Thursday.
The Ulfa commander-in-chief Ulfa had claimed a day after the operations began that he was injured. Both Barua and Rajkhowa said in subsequent statements that Bhutanese troops killed Buragohain after he surrendered.
With the operation in Bhutan continuing, the All Assam Buddhists Minority Council today sought the intervention of the secretary-general of the Thailand-based World Fellowship of Buddhism to ?stop killing of women and children?.
In a statement, it said: ?The actions of the Royal Bhutan Army are against the Buddhist tenet of non-violence.?