Rajkhowa remanded to 12-day custody

Top United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) leaders Arabinda Rajkhowa and Raju Baruah today resented their treatment by the police and vowed “never to surrender” as another leader, Paresh Baruah, said dialogue was possible only with sovereignty on the agenda.

Rajkhowa, Baruah and Raja Borah, who were picked up along with their family on the Indo-Bangladesh border yesterday, were produced in a court to face legal process in a 1998 case and were remanded to 12 days police custody. ULFA Chairman Rajkhowa and Deputy Commander-In-Chief Raju Baruah were brought with handcuffs on one of the hands, connected to a police-held rope, and they made no secret of their anger.

After the brief remand proceedings, both the leaders claimed they had not surrendered before the Indian authorities and that they were “betrayed” by Bangladesh.

“We have not surrendered and there can be no talks with handcuffs on. Bangladesh has betrayed us. We have to be free. We want peace, but not in this way,” Rajkhowa shouted to newsmen before being taken away. “We should have worn the garland of victory and come, but we had to come with handcuffs on. We have not surrendered and will never ever surrender,” he said.

Paresh Baruah, who is believed to be in Myanmar and who had yesterday asked Rajkhowa not to fall into the government’s trap of dialogue, today denied there was any split in the organisation he had “full confidence” in Rajkhowa.

“We are ready for dialogue provided sovereignty for Assam is discussed,” he said in an email to the media from an undisclosed location fine tuning his reservation on the dialogue process.