The 31 members of the central committee of All Assam Surrender Ulfa Sommittee, an umbrella organisation of surrendered Ulfa, today took out a procession from Latasil to Raj Bhavan here, a distance of about 2km, before submitting a memorandum to governor J.B. Patnaik.
They sought Patnaik’s intervention to take up the issue with the Centre to seize arms and ammunition from the NSCN (I-M), withdrawal of criminal cases pending against surrendered Ulfa members and their rehabilitation, among others.
“One of the important demands today is that the Centre should immediately take steps to seize the weapons in the hands of NSCN (I-M) members who carry out extortion, kidnapping and attacks on the people living along the inter-state boundary,” president of the organisation, Raj Kumar Duwarah, told The Telegraph today.
Duwarah, hailing from Namti in Upper Assam’s Sivasagar district, had surrendered in 1992 when Hiteswar Saikia was the chief minister.
Thirteen persons were killed in attacks along the Assam-Nagaland border in Golaghat district last month while 10 people were killed at Behali in Sonitpur district along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh boundary.
“We will launch a peaceful protest if no action is taken to seize the arms of the NSCN (I-M). We will block the transportation of natural resources from Assam, such as coal or petroleum,” Duwarah said.
Duwarah said there were 4,200 members of the organisation who had surrendered since 1992 but were yet to receive any assistance from the government.
“About 1,500 surrendered Ulfa members had received one-time financial assistance of Rs 1.5 lakh, vehicles and other benefits. We want that the cases pending against our members be withdrawn as we gave up arms and violence and are unable to pay the expense to fight court cases,” he said.
Source: The Telegraph
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