New Delhi: As the stage is all set for a much-anticipated peace agreement to be signed between the Central government, the Assam government and the pro-talk faction of the banned United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) on Friday, leaders of the banned outfit are optimistic that their prime demand of getting constitutional guarantee to safeguard the rights of the indigenous people of Assam will get prominence.
“We are hopeful that the peace agreement will ensure the constitutional safeguard and protection to the indigenous people of Assam,” said Ulfa pro-talk leader Mrinal Hazarika to this correspondent. Two senior members of the outfit Anup Chetia and Sasadhar Choudhary have already reached the national capital on Monday. As many as 16 members of the outfit, including its chairman Aurobindo Rajkhowa, are likely to reach Delhi in a day or two.
Sources said that the tripartite peace agreement with Ulfa pro-talks will be signed on December 29. Outfit general secretary Anup Chetia and senior member Sasadhar Choudhary met AK Mishra, secretary (NE) in the Home Ministry and several other officials from the IB and Home Ministry in New Delhi on Tuesday for a review of the peace agreement. Mishra, who was the Special Director IB, was working as an interlocutor in the talk process between the Government of India and Ulfa.
A final meeting is likely to take place on Wednesday. Although the formal talks between the government and the outfit began in 2011, the date of signing the peace accord was deferred many times due to various reasons. When the outfit started the peace talks, it submitted a 12-point charter of demand, including constitutional and political arrangements and reforms, as well as protection of the identity and material resources of the local indigenous people of Assam.
It is worth mentioning that Chetia, along with Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, vice-president Pradip Gogoi, deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah, foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury and several others started the peace talks in 2011 after they were arrested and pushed back from Bangladesh, where they had taken shelter for years. Ulfa had carried out an armed movement demanding a sovereign Assam since its formation in 1979.
In its charter of demands, the outfit put the condition of reservation of 94 out of 126 seats in the Assam Assembly for the state’s indigenous people, a flawless National Register of Citizens (NRC) among other issues. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biaswa Sarma recently told ETV Bharat that his government is trying to give importance to the issue of constitutional guarantee to the indigenous people of Assam as demanded by Ulfa. He had also expressed confidence that a peace agreement with the Ulfa-pro talk faction would inspire Ulfa-Independent led by the organisation’s elusive commander in chief Paresh Baru to come to the negotiation table.
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