GUWAHATI: The pro-talks faction of militant outfit
Ulfa
said on Wednesday that it would ink a tripartite peace accord with the Centre and the Assam government in New Delhi on Friday, ending a decades-old stalemate that includes two failed attempts since 1992 to arrive at a settlement.
While there is no official statement yet from either the Union home ministry or the BJP-led Assam government, Ulfa general secretary
Anup Chetia
told TOI from Delhi that “this will be a good accord.”
Chetia said the outfit, one-half of the original Ulfa from which the Paresh Baruah-led faction broke away in 2012 after refusing to be part of the dialogue, had ironed out the rough edges in the draft of its proposed peace accord with the Centre and the state government.
“Both sides have worked on a give-and-take principle to arrive at an improvised version of the draft agreement given to us in April this year by the Centre,” he said.
Chetia has been camping in
the national
capital since Saturday to sort out what he said were “some very minor issues.” The signing of the tripartite agreement will be in the presence of Union home minister
Amit Shah
and Assam CM
Himanta Biswa Sarma
, he said.
Ulfa chairman
Arabinda Rajkhowa
led a 14-member delegation of the outfit to Delhi on Tuesday.
Chetia
said another 14-member team of leaders of Assam’s indigenous people’s groups would be arriving in the national capital on Thursday. Militancy in the state started 44 years ago with the then undivided Ulfa seeking “restoration of Assam’s sovereignty.”
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