ULFA disowns hijack plan

The ULFA on Tuesday disowned the plane hijack plan and condemned the Government for arresting its peace talk facilitator Lachit Bordoloi. A member of the ULFA appointed Peoples’ Consultative Group (PCG) for the derailed peace talks with the Centre, Bordoloi and airport employee Sumanto Dutta, arrested on Monday, were remanded to five days in police custody by Kamrup Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Darakullah. Police arrested them on the charge of hatching a plot to hijack a plane from the Borjhar airport here to Rawalpindi.

Meanwhile, ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa alleged that the arrest of Bordoloi, secretary general of Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS), was a clear case of human rights violation. “Bordoloi is not an ULFA sympathiser as alleged by the Government. Bordoloi was devoted to restore democratic rights of the Assamese through peaceful means whereas we believe in armed struggle to establish our rights,” Rajkhowa said in a e-mailed statement.

In another statement, the group’s deputy commander Raju Barua claimed Manoj Tamuly, whose confession led to the arrests, was not a member of the ULFA as he had surrendered twice before the Army — once at Nalbari and again at Tamulpur in 2004 — and had since been working for the police. Police claimed to have arrested Tamuly on February 9 from here.