Author: K Anurag
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: June 30, 2008
URL: http://us.rediff.com/news/2008/jun/30assam.htm
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday
called upon the fugitive commander in chief of the United Liberation Front
of Asom Paresh Baruah to come out of the clutches of the Pakistani Inter Services
Intelligence and other forces inimical to India and hold talks with the government
of India instead of engineering killings of innocent people in Assam.
Gogoi termed it as cowardice on part of the
ULFA to kill innocent people in the state as it was no longer capable of taking
on the security forces that are breathing down its neck.
He said altogether seven persons were killed
and 90 others injured in Assam in ULFA-orchestrated retaliatory violence in
Assam since June 26, the day the 'A' and 'C' companies of the 28th battalion
of the ULFA declared unilateral truce.
Talking to the newsmen in Guwahati, Gogoi
said, "I don't know how the ULFA is going to achieve its goal of restoration
of sovereignty in of Assam by killing innocent people who have been made soft
targets. There is no question of holding talks with the ULFA on its demand
for sovereignty which is not negotiable."
"The ULFA is definitely not serving the
interests of the people of Assam by killing innocent people. It is obvious
that it is rather serving interest of foreign forces, including the Pakistani
ISI inimical to India. Its top leaders are staying in Bangladesh, enjoying
the patronage of anti-Indian forces," Gogoi commented calling upon civil
society groups in the state to mount pressure on the ULFA to stop killings
and come forward for talks with the government.
However, the Assam government doesn't recognise
the People's Consultative Group, which was nominated by the ULFA, as a civil
society group.
"The PCG is not a civil society group
as it obeys diktat from ULFA," Gogoi said.
The Assam government on Monday informed that
13,000 ULFA militants have surrendered in Assam since 1991, which left the
outfit with only about 1,500 cadres in its ranks as on date.
The 'A' and 'C' companies of the 28th battalion
of the outfit have total 350 cadres who have agreed to unilateral ceasefire.
Gogoi informed there were 300 ULFA cadres
based in the outfit's bases in Bangladesh and Myanmar.
