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North East : Assam peace talks : Impasse continues, but positive signals

	July 24, 2006

Even though the impasse between the Centre and ULFA on holding direct negotiations persists, both sides have reiterated their commitment to the peace process.



Litterateur Mamoni Raisom Goswami, who is the convener of the People’s Consultative Group (PCG), met Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal on July 20 to discuss a letter she had received from ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa.



Though Goswami refused to disclose the contents of the letter, Home Ministry sources said the letter harped on ULFA’s old demands for sovereignty and release of their top leaders before holding direct talks. The letter, however, also conveyed ULFA’s eagerness to have direct talks with New Delhi.



“The Union Home Ministry’s response was very positive and I am hopeful that the talks will take place by the end of August,” said Goswami after coming out from the hour-long meeting with the Union Home Secretary, Intelligence Bureau Director E.S.L. Narsimhan and other senior Home Ministry officials.



Duggal also placed certain points before Goswami for clarification from ULFA. He said the clarifications should come to the government by August. Goswami, however refused to divulge these points.



In an other positive development, the Centre on July 21 asked Mamoni Raisom Goswami to convey to the ULFA that its jailed leaders would be released as soon as direct negotiations begin. Delhi also said ULFA would be able to include the incarcerated leaders in its delegation for parleys.



Direct talks between New Delhi and the outfit could well be held by September or October. Goswami has again been asked to convey the Home Ministry’s stand to ULFA regarding direct talks - to establish direct contact with either Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil or Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. This has to be coupled with an assurance on ULFA’s part to create a peaceful atmosphere in the state.



BJP salvo



The opposition BJP, which has been making in-roads in this strife-torn region, plunged into the raging debate on the release of some jailed ULFA leaders to facilitate a dialogue for peace, saying none of them should be freed without the outfit eschewing violence.



National BJP president Rajnath Singh, who was in Assam recently to review his party’s poll performance, said it was impractical to even consider releasing arrested militant leaders in the absence of any sign of the ULFA giving up its violent methods.



The BJP leader claimed to have received credible information about 25,000 youths being trained in Bangladesh for subversive activities across India. “It is a matter of grave concern for the BJP that Bangladesh, with which several of our states share a border, has turned into a centre of global terrorists. Vigil on the border should be stepped up,” he said.





Simi alert in Assam districts



All police stations and outposts in seven districts of Assam have been directed to prepare a list of persons suspected to have links with fundamentalist groups, including the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (Simi), and keep a close watch on them.



However, there was confusion over whether Imamuddin Ahmed, who was picked up by the Army in Dibrugarh on the night of July 18, was a Simi activist. While police said there was nothing yet to prove that he was connected to the banned student group, the Army maintained otherwise.



While security forces claimed that his arrest had dealt a blow to Simi’s network in the state, Dibrugarh district additional superintendent of police (Headquarters), Ashim Swargiary, said there was nothing yet to implicate Ahmed. “But we are investigating,” he added.



Officials of the army remained convinced that Ahmed was a Simi activist. “We have specific inputs that Ahmed was born in Bangladesh and came to Manipur in 1994 where he established and nurtured the Simi network. After that, he came to Dibrugarh and has since been working as the chief co-ordinator of Simi for the two states,” a source said.



In another development, a police source said two electronic toys were recovered from five suspected fundamentalists arrested in Guwahati.



The wires of the two toys have been removed. “There have been instances in Jammu and Kashmir where militants have planted bombs in such toys. Though the accused have claimed that they bought the toys for their children, we are trying to verify their statements,” the source added.



Guwahati police on July 18 claimed another prize catch in the form of a top gun of the Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (Multa) - one nicknamed Lambu and with a suitably tall list of subversive activities against his name - within 72 hours of apprehending five “tourists” who may have been working for terrorists.



The police said the six-foot-plus Nur Islam was a Multa commander who had escaped detection by masquerading as a rickshaw-puller and staying in a slum at Fatasil Ambari for several years. After tailing him for sometime, a police team raided his rented shack late on July 17t and took him into custody.



Islam’s brief while staying in Guwahati was ostensibly to lure economically under-privileged Muslim youths to Multa and take them to Bangladesh for training through West Bengal and Meghalaya.



Five other persons suspected to have links with a terrorist group were arrested in the city on July 16, but neither the police nor the army has been able to ascertain their real identities.



The remaining members of the group were identified as Md Shahbuddin, Mir Issa Haque, Seikh Asraf Tarafdar and Md Hasmat Raza. The police zeroed in on the five men because two of them were thought to resemble suspects in the Mumbai blasts case.