Centre hopeful to ink peace pacts with insurgent groups in Assam

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) After signing peace pact with Karbi Anglong on September 4, the Centre and Assam government have been talking to other insurgents groups to surrender their arms to bring them to the mainstream of the society, sources said here on Monday.

According to the sources, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been in touch with the major insurgent groups such as Dimasa National Liberation Army (DNLA) and United Liberation Front of Asom Independent (ULFA-I) apart from some small outfits too through the state government representative.

The Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma himself has been monitoring the peace talks with these militant outfits, they added.

While talking to media on September 4, after the Karbi Anglong deal was signed, Sarma also indicated that that the state government representative has been in touch with The United Liberation Front of Asom Independent (ULFA-I) chief Paresh Baruah and very soon ULFA could join peace talks with the Centre.

On August 15, this year, he also appealed to the banned outfit ULFA-I Chief Paresh Baruah to come forward to the negotiating table for the dialogue process.

On January 27 last year, the MHA had signed a peace accord with one of the dreaded insurgent groups of Assam -- the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) along with the All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU) under which around 1,550 cadres along with 130 weapons surrendered on January 30, 2021.

ULFA is an armed far-leftist separatist organisation operating in Assam. It seeks to establish an independent sovereign nation state of Assam for the indigenous Assamese people through an armed struggle.

The Dimasa tribe is an indigenous, ethno-linguistic community living in Assam and Nagaland. The Dimasa National Liberation Army is a two-year-old militant group based in Assam that announced its launch in April 2019, claiming it was "committed to revamp the national struggle and fight for the liberation of a sovereign, Independent Dimasa Nation".

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on September 4 signed a tripartite 'Karbi Peace Accord' here bringing an end to the decades long agitation and unrest in Assam. The militant groups are -- People's Democratic Council of Karbi Longri (PDCK), Karbi Longri NC Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF), Karbi People's Liberation Tiger (KPLT), Kuki Liberation Front (KLF) and United People's Liberation Army (UPLA).

Describing the peace pact as historic, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said, "The signing of the Historic Karbi Anglong Agreement, the Modi government is committed to resolving the decades-old crisis, ensuring the territorial integrity of Assam".

Reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of "Insurgency free prosperous North East", he said that the government was committed to fulfil all promises made in the accord and also said that the Modi government will welcome any insurgents who want to give up arms and join the mainstream.