Buragohain at the 4 Corps headquarters in Tezpur on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Tezpur/Guwahati, Dec. 26: Ulfa founder member Bhimkanta Buragohain, whom the army pronounced dead over a week ago, today surfaced at a surrender ceremony in Tezpur to admit the futility of the militant group’s violent campaign and urge fellow rebels to lay down arms.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi blamed the “communication gap” between India and Bhutan for the wrong information on Buragohain that had been disseminated over the past week. “The Centre does not have accurate information on the number of militants killed and captured in Bhutan,” he said from New Delhi.

The army announced on December 18 that Buragohain, in his eighties and lovingly called Mama by the Ulfa rank and file, died after surrendering to Bhutanese troops. The militant leader, however, appeared to be in good health when he and three of his Ulfa comrades were paraded before the media at the Tezpur-based headquarters of the army’s Four Corps.

None of the four Ulfa militants was allowed to speak to the reporters. The quartet was later whisked away to an unknown destination.

Before leaving the venue of the surrender ceremony, Buragohain read out an elaborately written statement. “I think the path which we have chosen is the wrong one. This is why I appeal to all Ulfa members, even to Paresh Barua, to introspect. We need to know that peace does not come through the barrel of the gun, but through negotiations.”

Buragohain, a former army jawan, and five more militant leaders founded the Ulfa in 1979. Espousing a different philosophy today, he said: “I want to say (to all) to agree to a ceasefire, to come to an understanding with the government of India and to come to the negotiation table and resolve this issue once and for all.”

Officials said Mama and his comrades were captured by the Royal Bhutan Army on December 18 and handed to the Indian army yesterday. Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua had claimed a day after the operations began that he was injured.

Both Barua and Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa claimed in statements thereafter that Bhutanese troops killed Buragohain after he surrendered.

The three Ulfa militants who surrendered with Buragohain in Tezpur are newly-appointed Ulfa political adviser Robin Handique, assistant publicity secretary Bolin Das and the militant group’s camp doctor in Bhutan, Amarjit Gogoi.

Introducing Buragohain to the media, Four Corps general-officer-commanding Lt Gen. Mohinder Singh said the seniormost Ulfa leader’s surrender and his appeal to his comrades to abjure violence was “a historic moment for Assam and, hopefully, (an indication of) the last few moments of insurgency in this region”.

A few hours after the surrender, the Ulfa, the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) announced a “ban” on the movement of people to and from Bhutan from tomorrow noon till the bodies of rebels killed in the offensive are returned to their families.

In a joint statement, the three organisations warned people on this side of the border not to transact business with any individual or establishment in Bhutan till the end of the operation.

In Guwahati, captured Ulfa publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary claimed his organisation had requested Bhutan to play the role of a mediator in talks with Delhi, but it “betrayed us” by mounting “a surprise attack”.

Daimary, who was produced by the special operations unit of Assam police in the court of the Kamrup chief judicial magistrate, told the media that the Ulfa had “never been opposed to the idea of peace talks”.

Chief judicial magistrate Rumi Kumari Phukan remanded him in police custody for seven days, but asked the police not to handcuff him.

The Union home ministry has appointed a nodal officer to keep Dispur updated about the operation in Bhutan.