The outlawed ULFA on Tuesday sought Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s intervention for early repatriation of its incarcerated leader Anup Chetia, sending the Indian security apparatus on a tizzy over the possible motive of such a request.
The Ulfa general secretary, languishing in a Bangladesh jail after seeking an asylum in that country, changed his mind and recently approached Bangladesh seeking repatriation.
Both the Indian government and the moderate ULFA faction became proactive to get Chetia back in India as they saw that could boost the ongoing peace talks between Delhi and the insurgent group.
Chetia’s presence among the pro-talks ULFA faction was seen as key to neutralise the influence of estranged Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua who refused to smoke the peace pipe and continues his armed movement against India from his bases in Myanmar after being pushed out of Bangladesh.
A senior Indian home ministry official had last month assured the pro-talk Ulfa group headed by Arabinda Rajkhowa that Chetia would be handed over to India by July 16.
But Assam police’s intelligence chief, Khagen Sarma, now claimed that Chetia’s repatriation would take some more time.
Amidst the confusion, chairman of ULFA’s Paresh Barua faction has approached Hasina seeking Chetia’s “honourable and decent repatriation” from Bangladesh to “carry on the liberation struggle of Assam.”
This has surprised all concerned because Chetia will surely be consigned to jail if he does not go along with the pro-talks faction.
Security experts in India claim that Paresh Barua faction’s letter to Hasina was confusing as it was expected that Chetia would join Rajkhowa faction for the peace negotiation with New Delhi.
Rajkhowa and his team after failing to make much headway in the peace process were actively campaigning with New Delhi for getting back the shrewd Ulfa general secretary to India to join the peace effort.
Now giving a new twist to the entire episode , the Paresh Barua faction group, which now calls itself Ulfa (Independent), wrote the letter to Hasina seeking Chetia’s repatriation.
“We have to study the actual motive of Paresh Barua group’s to throw its weight behind Chetia. It could possibly be a ploy to complicate the entire repatriation process,” said a senior Assam police official.
The letter to Hasina is signed by the chairman of the group Abhizeet Asom .
“I believe Mr Anup Chetia has approached your government volunteering to be repatriated rather than being held in the protective custody anymore. However, upon being made aware that you are seeking a few citizen of your country who are indicted as criminals and are currently being held up India, like Subrata Bain in exchange of Mr Chetia’s repatriation,” Abhizeet Asom says in the letter.
“I am deeply dismayed that Chetia’s request for voluntary repatriation has been used as a bargaining tool in getting hands on Bangladeshi criminals currently in India,” he adds. “Mr Anup Chetia is not a criminal, but, a leader of the freedom loving people of Assam. Handing him over to colonial administration of India in exchange of criminals of your country would be a great humiliation and will hurt the sentiment of the people of Assam.”
Some intelligence officials and ULFA watchers feel the Paresh Barua faction is trying to confuse India and upset the Assam peace process.
Source: Bd news24
