ULFA talks going nowhere: Chidambaram

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said that the pressure on ULFA will be maintained despite the govts willingness to hold talks.

Stating that talks with the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) were leading nowhere because the banned outfits leadership was outside the country,Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said the pressure on ULFA will be maintained despite the governments willingness to hold talks.

Frankly,in my assessment of the situation,talks with ULFA are leading nowhere and the reason is obvious. The reason is that Paresh Barua,Arvind Rajkhowa and Raju Barua are outside India. There are serious differences among them. We hope that those differences multiply and we hope that some of them will see reason, Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

Our position regarding militant groups in the North East is very simple and straightforward give up violence,give up arms,give up any claim for sovereignty,we are willing to hold talks, the Home Minister said,adding that he did not think that the ULFA leadership today is in a position to accept these conditions.

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This is what we gather through intelligence reports about Paresh Baruas speeches,statements and movements. But I am confident that with the recent surrender of the two ULFA leaders and the growing differences among the remaining three or four leaders,it is only a matter of time that there will be further dissensions and ULFA will be weakened,and,eventually,they will see reason and come to talks. But,in the meantime,both the state and central governments are clear that we will continue to maintain intense pressure on ULFA, Chidambaram said.

Calling ULFA a very violent organisation,the Home Minister said that despite it having denied its role in the November 22 bomb blasts in Assams Nalbari district,the footprint of ULFA is seen in the way the bicycle bomb was carried out. Expressing regret over the Nalbari blasts,Chidambaram said that for every incident that occurred in Assam in the last 11 months,there were dozens of incidents which Assam Police prevented. In fact,Assam Police has done an exemplary job in the last year. It is because of the intense pressure maintained by the Assam Police and the security forces that we have been able to force splits in the organisation,and one faction of each organisation is coming for talks… he said.

Earlier,making a suo motu statement on the bomb blasts in Nalbari,Chidambaram said,In the past few weeks,we had received intelligence reports about the plans of ULFA to engineer bomb blasts in Nalbari and Guwahati districts. The state government had also issued alerts. While strict vigilance was maintained in the two districts and elsewhere,the incident in Nalbari could not be averted. Search operations are continuing in Nalbari and neighbouring districts.