GUWAHATI, Dec 30 ? Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today accused the self-styled commander-in-chief of the banned ULFA, Paresh Baruah, and other top leaders of the outfit of standing in the way of talks with Government of India. Addressing a press conference at Janata Bhawan this afternoon, Gogoi in reaction to the ULFA leaders attaching pre-conditions for talks with Government of India (GOI), said that the ULFA cadres by and large wanted to sit for talks barring a handful like Paresh Baruah who are puppets in the hands of anti-India forces in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
?As long as the top leaders of ULFA like Paresh Baruah and others continue to enjoy shelter in Bangladesh they will remain puppets in the hands of anti-India forces and won?t be able to come for talks with Government of India,? the Chief Minister said underlining the urgent need for evicting ULFA from the soil of Bangladesh. ?The failure of the ULFA cadres to put up resistance against Bhutan indicates that they have lost the will to fight and are willing to come overground,? Gogoi said.
?The people from all walks in the State want ULFA to sit for talks with GOI sans any condition following the footsteps of Naga rebel outfit NSCN-IM, Mizo National Front (MNF) and Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT). The banned outfit should heed to the wishes of the people in case they want peace and prosperity for the people in the State,? he added. Gogoi informed that so far the Army has handed over 171 ULFA cadres including women and children to the State police. They were earlier apprehended by Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) before handing over to Indian Army.
These include at least nine top ULFA leaders namely its political adviser Bhimkanta Buragohain, central publicity secretary Mithinga Daimari, Rabin Handique, Dr Amarjit Gogoi, Bolin Das, Lt Satabda Kumar, Samarjit Chaliha, Anita Rabha and Asomi Deuri. The Chief Minister said, ?The Bhutan Government should be appreciated for their gesture of treating the women ULFA cadres and their children well after they were left at the mercy of RBA by their men folk.?
?The State Government is committed to take good care of these innocent children of conflict so that they can become good citizens of the country,? Gogoi said in reference to 27 militants? kids handed over to Indian authority by the RBA. These children are now lodged in a special camp run by district administration in Nalbari. Gogoi cast aspersion on the ?stoic silence? maintained by the Opposition AGP over the Bhutan operation against the banned militant outfits of the State and criticised the AGP leaders and former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta of making a volte face over the issue.
In reaction to Mahanta?s reported statement accusing the Gogoi-led Congress Government of maintaining a ?double standard? vis-?-vis talks with the banned ULFA and the operation by Bhutanese Army, Gogoi countered by saying that it was Mahanta who in the capacity of a Chief Minister of the State made a statement in Assam Assembly way back on March 11 in the year 2000 mooting the urgent need to evict Assam militants from neighbouring Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Chief Minister said that it was high time the Government of India raise the issue of cross-border terrorism in the forthcoming SAARC summit as most of the SAARC nations including India were affected by cross-border movements of terrorist outfits.