160 ULFA men surrender, Mahanta elated

The 160 youth who surrendered today included as many as 35 from Nagaon, the Chief Minister’s home district, while the others came from 12 other districts. There was also one woman cadre called Minati Mahanta. The youth, who had quit the ULFA during the past four or five weeks, also laid down 19 AK-series rifles, three machine guns, four revolvers, ten high explosives, three sten carbines and 1500 rounds of ammunition, apart from other small fire-arms.

Addressing the surrender function at the Dispur Parade Ground, Chief Minister Mahanta said that more and more members of the ULFA were realising that they were on the wrong path, and have been contacting the police and the Army to come back to the mainstream. He also appealed to those holed up in Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar to come out as early as possible.

State governor SK Sinha on the other hand described the recent massacres of Hindi-speaking settlers as the beginning of the end for the ULFA. "It all began when the ULFA killed Sanjoy Ghosh in Majuli, raped and murdered a young girl called Rashmi Bora in Nagaon and CPI(ML) leader Anil Barua during the 1998 elections," Governor Sinha said.

Governor Sinha, while condemning the recent massacres, also said that what the ULFA was currently doing was a self-destructing activity.

Ramen Nath, till recently action group deputy commander, speaking on behalf of the 160 youth on the other hand said the ULFA was now fully into the ISI’s grip. "When we blew up an oil pipeline a couple of years ago, it was not only the armed wing chief Paresh Barua who congratulated me, but one Pathan also rang up from Pakistan, who told me not to worry about arms and ammunition as far as destroying oil installations was concerned," Nath said.

He also said that favouritism had also crept into ULFA, with senior leader Raju Barua, who hails from Nalbari district, awarding promotions and good’ postings to those who came from his home district.