ULFA leader Anup Chetia to give up armed ways

Anup Chetia, who is now lodged at the Guwahati Central Jail, said that he wanted to join the pro-talks faction of the ULFA, reports K Anurag.

Top United Liberation Front of Assam leader Golap Barua alias Anup Chetia has decided not to pursue the path of armed struggle and resort to democratic means to solve the issues raised by the ULFA.

He conveyed the message of his decision to join the pro-talks faction of the ULFA on Tuesday through his wife Monica who called on him at the Guwahati Central Jail. 

Anup Chetia 48, the founder general secretary of the banned ULFA, is wanted for killings, abductions, bank robberies and extortion activities.

The insurgent leader, whose original name is Golap Barua, was handed over by Bangladesh to Indian officials on November 11 and has been in the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation since then.

Talking to newsmen after meeting her husband in jail, Monica said, “My husband has asked me to convey to you that he will no longer pursue the path of armed struggle. He has reposed his faith on democratic means.”

“Chetia, however, has not commented on the on-going peace talks with the pro-talks faction of the ULFA since he is yet to study the charter of demands,” she added.

A leader of the pro-talks faction of the ULFA, Mrinal Hazarika, who also met Chetia in prison on Tuesday, said they were hopeful that the government would facilitate Chetia’s release for the sake of taking the peace process forward.

Chetia, a hardliner militant leader, is considered to be a close aide of Paresh Barua, fugitive commander-in-chief of the ULFA, recently said that Chetia’s extradition was very unfortunate.

Barua headed the ULFA’s armed wing since its inception in 1979. Chetia was in Bangladesh ever since he fled India in early 1990s. He had been arrested in March 1991 but the then Assam Chief Minister Hiteshwar Saikia released him from jail, following which he fled from India, official sources said.