ULFA strike paralyses life in Assam but remains peaceful

NI Wire

Guwahati

Wed, 20 Feb 2008: 

The 12-hour Assam Bandh called by the proscribed militant outfit United Liberation Front Organisation, ULFA on Tuesday to protest against the arrest of PCG member Lachhit Bordoloi completely disrupted the normal life in the Brahmaputra valley.

All educational institutions, commercial establishments, and bankremained closed whereas government were open, but with thin attendance.

The roads remained calm with almost destitute of the vehicles except some long-distance buses left early in the morning with police personnel.

As per the North East Railway sources, the train services remained unaffected and the air services remained unaltered too with their earlier schedule.

The bandh proved calm and peaceful with no information of any violent activities across the state except a strong but peaceful reaction from a section of citizens who appeared on the road in protest against the proscribed outfit.

The citizens participated in a rally to mark their condemnation of the bandh called by the organisation, which have not participated in the welfare of the state yet and claims to have no faith in the Indian constitution.

One of the reasons for the citizens’ disapproval can be seek in the atmosphere when their children were passing through different exams. The bandh reflect the selfishness nature of the ULFA, which it called at the time when children were busy with their exams, said an activist.

On the other side the outfit justified the bandh by saying it was a mark to protest against the fake encounters by the security forces in which several innocent civilians had been killed.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said, “Our tough actions would continue. There would be no stopping. I have instructed the security forces to go all out.”

The security forces had been achieving key success in the past one week, killing four ULFA cadres and arresting more than a dozen with arms, from various parts of the state besides foiling an alleged hijack conspiracy and two bombing attempts.

The banned outfit however rejected any hijack conspiracy and simultaneously also discarded moderate path of peace. It announced in their organ ''Freedom'' that they would no longer be interested in the peace process. This is the time to struggle and offence, it said.

However, the Assam chief minister made it clear that the operation would be suspended only if ULFA directly shows interest for negotiation.

In the absence of any such demand the operation would remain continue. The dialogue with People’s Consultative Group (PCG) would bore no fruit because they do not have much access and control over the leadership of ULFA, Gogoi said.

ULFA had constituted the Peoples Consultative Group (PCG) as a liaison between them and the Government.

The bandh was called to protest against the arrest of ULFA peace facilitator and the PCG member Lachhit Bordoloi, on February 11 with three others for his alleged involvement in a plan to hijack an aircraft from Guwahati airport.