Guwahati, Jan. 3: The Assam government today set conditions for lifting the ban on Ulfa and said the government would grant the group’s top leaders, who have been released from jail, special permission to hold a central executive council meeting to pave the way for peace talks.

Ulfa will have to formally give up its demand for sovereignty and abjure violence before steps can be taken to revoke the ban, health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on the sidelines of an official event at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.

Sarma’s statement came two days after chief minister Tarun Gogoi said the ban on Ulfa would not be lifted and counter-insurgency operations against the outfit would continue as and when necessary.

During the customary interaction with the media on January 1, Gogoi said that though several top Ulfa leaders, including chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, have come overground and are willing to talk, the ban and operations against the outfit could not be lifted since there was still an anti-talks faction engaged in violence.

Asked how the government would allow a banned outfit to hold its central executive committee meeting, Sarma replied that the government would grant it special permission to facilitate the peace talks.

Ulfa, which was formed on April 7, 1979, in the Upper Assam town of Sivasagar, was declared a banned organisation by the Centre in November 1990 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

Sarma, who is also the spokesperson for the Assam government, said there was no link between the peace talks and the Assembly elections in April.

He said the government would adopt a judicious, pragmatic and cautious approach in the dialogue with Ulfa.

“We want a fruitful solution with Ulfa. So, the government will not take any decision in a hurry,” he said.

On receiving feelers from the anti-talks faction of Bodo outfit NDFB for negotiation, Sarma evaded a direct reply saying the process of talks with various militant outfits was on the right track.

The minister made it clear that the waving of Ulfa flags and banners and shouting of pro-Ulfa slogans, as some people had done following the release of Rajkhowa, would not be tolerated.

“The government will not give knee-jerk reactions to the recent incidents of the waving of Ulfa flags and shouting of pro-Ulfa slogans following the release of Rajkhowa.

But such things cannot continue for long and the government will adopt a policy on how to deal with such action,” Sarma said.