Ulfa-I declares unilateral Covid ceasefire for 90 days
A day after a grenade blast that rocked Upper Assam, the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom - Independent (Ulfa-I) on Saturday declared a unilateral ceasefire for three months with immediate effect. The Paresh Baruah-led insurgent group said it took the decision because of the Covid-19 pandemic in Assam.
The Ulfa-I’s unilateral ceasefire comes close on the heels of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s recent appeal to Mr Baruah to come forward for peace talks.
However, Mr Sarma, who was in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia on Saturday, refused to give any reaction to Ulfa-I’s unilateral ceasefire but said that his government was in favour of creating a congenial atmosphere to resolve the conflict through talks. “It is the responsibility of both the government and the Ulfa-I to create an atmosphere for resolving the conflict through talks across the table,” he said.
Earlier Ulfa-I in a statement sent to newspaper offices through email said, “During the Covid-19 crisis time we have decided for a unilateral ceasefire for three months from every activity which will come into effect from May 15, 2021 (Saturday). We want to inform the indigenous people of Assam that for three months our every activity will be stopped.”
Though Ulfa-I has not responded to chief minister’s appeal for peacetalks directly, security sources see it a ploy of the outfit to hold the possible onslaught of security forces after the grenade blast which the outfit has disowned.
Hours after taking charge, Assam chief minister had said, “I request Paresh Barua to come to the discussion table and resolve issues. Kidnappings and killings complicate problems, not solve them. I hope we will be able to make the underground insurgents return to the mainstream in the next five years.” On Saturday he visited Tingrai market in Digboi where two people were killed and two seriously injured in a grenade blast in a hardware shop. The chief minister also met the family of one of the deceased Surojit Talukdar.