In an emailed statement to the media, Barua claimed that a plebiscite, held in a free and fair manner, will reaffirm the ULFA’s contention that the group still enjoys complete support of the masses in its struggle to ‘liberate’ Assam.
“ULFA’s demand for independence of Assam is based on historical premise and we will not relent from our armed struggle unless our objective is achieved,” Barua reiterated.
Welcoming the initiative of a group of intellectuals of convening a meet later this month to discuss the state’s ‘problems’, Barua demanded from the group of convincing the Indian authorities to sit for talks with the ULFA on the ‘sovereignty’ issue.
“The group of intellectuals must persuade the Indian government to talk on complete independence for Assam while seeking a political resolution to the India-ULFA conflict. Else, any resolution adopted in the proposed meet will not be a reflection of the people of the state and will not be acceptable to ULFA,” the ‘commander-in-chief’ of the outfit said.
He slammed the intellectuals for their ‘pro-India’ stand and criticized their role in seeking to find solutions to the state’s problems by stating that they are ‘slaves’ of the Indian Constitution – the constitution which has ‘deprived’ the Assamese of their ‘rightful liberty’.
“If they (the group of intellectuals) think that the ULFA will come for a resolution of the political conflict with India by bowing down to the Indian Constitution as they have done, they are mistaken,” the military chief said.
Claiming complete support from the masses to their ‘independence struggle’, Barua said, “The Indian government, which prides itself on its democracy, should hold a plebiscite on the sovereignty issue and see for themselves the mass support the ULFA has in Assam.”
The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was formed on April 7, 1979, by Bhimakanta Buragohain, Rajiv Rajkonwar alias Arabinda Rajkhowa, Golap Baruah alias Anup Chetia, Samiran Gogoi alias Pradip Gogoi, Bhadreshwar Gohain and Paresh Baruah at the Rang Ghar in Sibsagar (Assam) to establish a ‘sovereign socialist Assam’ through an armed struggle, the South Asia Terrorism Portal says.
The ULFA has a clearly partitioned political and military wing. Paresh Barua heads the military wing as the outfit’s ‘commander-in-chief’.
Top ULFA leaders, including ‘chairman’ Arabinda Rajkhowa, ‘deputy c-in-c’ Raju Baruah and political ideologue Bhimkanta Buragohain, are lodged in the Guwahati jail, with only a handful of top leaders, including Paresh Barua, elusive at the moment.
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