The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), a separatist outfit operating in Assam, recently proposed to the central government of India to form a new force named ‘Khilinjia Bahini’ with former ULFA cadres to ‘prevent infiltration of Bangladeshis’ at the border.
Leaders of the pro-talks faction of ULFA visited Indian capital of Delhi last week to participate in peace talks with the central government.
Disclosing the information, Arabinda Rajkhowa, Chairman of pro-talks faction of ULFA, told the Bangla Tribune: “At present, infiltration of Bangladeshis is a burning issue in Assam. We have proposed for the formation of a new force with former ULFA cadres to prevent this infiltration. If our proposal is implemented, the border management will reach a new level.”
“It is the duty of BSF to keep the border intact, but there are numerous allegations that BSF personnel themselves let Bangladeshis cross the border in exchange of bribes. That’s why we want to form a new force, Khilinjia Bahini, which will act, after BSF, as the second line of defence to guard the border.”
He said we have proposed to form the new force with former ULFA members who returned to mainstream society after surrender during the last few years. We have also proposed that the members of the force would not carry any firearms. They would at best carry a stick.
Citing Nepal as an example where former Maoist rebels were incorporated into the army after the surrender, Rajkhowa argued that it is a norm in different countries to incorporate former separatist rebels into various forces. “So, there is nothing unfair or excessive in our proposal,” he said.
ULFA pro-talks faction’s General Secretary Anup Chetia said, “It is our duty to secure the political and socio-economic interest of former ULFA cadres. We cannot forget that just because we are participating in peace talks.”
Mentionable, Arvind Rajkhowa and Anup Chetia, both of the top ULFA leaders lived in Bangladesh for many years.
Anup, after being arrested from Dhaka in 1997, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in Foreigners Act. But even after the completion of sentence term, he was kept in Bangladeshi jail for many more years, rejecting Delhi’s request to hand him over to the Indian government.
He was finally handed over to India in 2015, ‘in exchange of’ Narayanganj seven-murder accused Nur Hossain whom India handed over to Bangladesh.
Prior to that, Sheikh Hasina’s government secretly handed over Arvind Rajkhowa also to Indian authorities at the border.
Anup and Rajkhowa are now leading ULFA in peace talks with the central government while the other faction of ULFA, led by Paresh Barua, is still continuing its separatist insurgency in the hilly state of Assam.
Meanwhile, the central government has not made any positive or negative response to the ULFA proposal.
AB Mathur, the central government’s representative in the peace talks, declined to comment on the proposal.