GUWAHATI: Assam's Director General of Police (DGP) GP Singh announced on Friday that discussions with the pro-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to establish a peace agreement have reached their concluding phases. The pro-talk faction of ULFA had previously expressed its dissatisfaction with the draft peace accord presented by the Central government as a basis for initiating talks.
Anup Chetia, the General Secretary of the pro-talk faction, emphasised that their primary goal is to protect Assam from illegal infiltrators and safeguard the constitutional rights of the indigenous population in the state. He maintained that without addressing several of their core demands, finalising the peace agreement would be challenging.
Chetia also noted that they had previously presented 12 demands to the Central government, including the revision of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), land rights for indigenous groups, Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for six indigenous tribes, declaring Assam floods as a national calamity, and an 88 per cent seat quota for indigenous individuals.
Notably, the ULFA-I faction, led by Paresh Baruah, has not come to the negotiating table. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has made an appeal to Baruah to lay down their arms and join the mainstream.
