Separate Bodo state is only solution — BLT

Keeping in consonance with this demand, the BLT has also urged the Assam government not to hold election to the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC). "All major Bodo groups have rejected the Bodo Accord and it is no point pursuing with the Council," the BLT leaders said.

The two leaders also said that the first round of negotiations between the BLT and the Government would be held on April 28 and 29 and the BLT would like Union Home Minister L K Advani to participate in it. The cease-fire came into force on March 29.

The two leaders, for the first time giving details of the cease-fire, also said that while the Centre had agreed to suspend operations against their cadres, the BLT too had vowed to keep away from unlawful and violent activities.

"We have had six rounds of informal discussions with the Government of India, which led to the cease-fire agreement and the formation of a monitoring group headed by Union Joint Secretary (Home) G K Pillai," Mushahary said.

This monitoring group will have two representatives each from the Government of India, Government of Assam and the BLT and one each from the Army and para-military forces, he added.

About their demands, he said that apart from a separate Bodo state on the north of the Brahmaputra, an autonomous district for the Bodos living in the south bank and inclusion of the Bodo tribals of Karbi Anglong district in the Sixth Schedule also figure on their agenda.

It may be recalled that the Centre had already withdrawn the ban on the BLT by not extending it after its term expired in January. The BLT, on its part, has also demanded release of all its cadres lodged in different jails, but the Government has said that it would be done only through the judicial process, Mushahary and Daimary said.