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Ulfa leaders to remain in jail, talks unlikely
Outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and Deputy C-in-Cs of the outfit Raju Barua and Raja Borah were produced at a court held inside a camp at the Guwahati Central jail on Thursday, reports Digambar Patowary.
Outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and Deputy C-in-Cs of the outfit Raju Barua and Raja Borah were produced at a court held inside a camp at the Guwahati Central jail on Thursday.
The court remanded them to nine more days in police custody.
Ajay Rajkonwar, brother of the Ulfa chairman, said that his brother had made no headway in talks with the Centre. “Talks will be possible only if the Centre agrees to the Ulfa’s demand for a sovereign Assam,” Rajkonwar quoted his brother as saying.
This was the first-ever camp court held in Assam. Three new cases were slapped on the Ulfa leaders.
Counsel for the Ulfa leaders, Bijan Mahajan, said that the Assam Police had imposed three new cases on the arrested Ulfa leaders. All the three cases imposed on Ulfa leaders were in connection with bomb blasts that rocked Guwahati in January this year.
The Gauhati High Court had ordered that the Ulfa leaders be heard at a camp court inside the jail following an appeal by the state government.
The Assam police had made elaborate security arrangements for the Ulfa leaders while bringing them to the jail. The media was denied access to the Ulfa leaders. Only their relatives were allowed access.
The top Ulfa men and eight others were handed over to the BSF by Bangladeshi authorities at Dawki on the Indo-Bangla border in Meghalaya on December 2. They were later handed over to the Assam Police.
The Ulfa leaders were produced at the Kamrup Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court on December 5. They were remanded to 12 days police custody.
Five top Ulfa leaders including its vice chairman, foreign secretary, finance secretary, cultural secretary and central publicity secretary are currently lodged at Guwahati Central Jail.
