Guwahati/Dibrugarh, June 24: Ulfa’s 28 battalion, its most potent military unit, split today with two of its three companies announcing a unilateral ceasefire this evening.
Just hours before the Alpha and Charlie companies announced the ceasefire, 25 cadres of the 28 battalion along with seven other militants, including from the NSCN, laid down arms before the army at Mariani in Assam’s Jorhat district.
In another ceremony, 26 Ulfa cadres, mainly from the 709 and 27 battalions, surrendered at Tamulpur in Baksa district.
Dispur’s sustained efforts to bring the most potent unit of Ulfa overground paid off partially when 15 leaders of the two companies — including the battalion’s former commander, self-styled captain Mrinal Hazarika, who was released from Dibrugarh Central Jail a few days ago on bail — signed a statement announcing the ceasefire.
Some of the other prominent signatories of the statement are Jiten Dutta, second lieutenant, commander of C company with additional charge of A company, Rudra Gogoi, rank corporal in C company and Joon Bhuyan, rank Corporal in C company.
The announcement comes close on the heels of the government issuing a secret memo to all the superintendents of police restricting any “unilateral action” against the outfit to pave the way for peace process with the 28 battalion.
Efforts are also on to bring the Bravo company of the 28 battalion overground.
Highly-placed sources said B company commander Sujit Mohan and the present commander of the 28 battalion, Bijoy Das alias Bijoy Chinese, were also considering joining the group that issued the statement today. In fact, Mohan had taken an early initiative in this regard.
But the two got unnerved by a sudden spate of encounters by the army in which some big names of the battalion died.
“They suddenly became unsure of their own security and that of their families,” one of the sources said.
They fled to Myanmar, where Ulfa’s central headquarters is located, and are under strict watch.
Another B Company leader, Ram Singh, is still in the state. He, however, did not sign the statement as he felt it would be an act of “grave indiscipline” to do so in the absence of his commander.
The unilateral ceasefire was announced after the A and C companies met today at an undisclosed location along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh boundary in Sadiya subdivision of Tinsukia district. Sources said the signatories to the statement were staying somewhere in Upper Assam.
They said the signatories had decided to cease hostilities to pave the way for a political dialogue between the government and Ulfa.
“In response to the people’s desire for peace, we call upon our respected central executive as well as the Central and state governments to show their respect to the people’s wishes,” the statement signed on a plain paper said.
Today’s announcement was the culmination of a process that started with Hazarika writing a letter to the government from jail a few months ago, expressing his willingness to broker peace.
Both government and army officials associated with the process were tightlipped about the development, but said any ceasefire will have to be along the lines espoused by the chief minister.
“Whichever group comes for ceasefire will have to lay down arms, live in designated camps and not indulge in extortion and intimidation,” one of them said.
The Ulfa has four battalions — 28, 27, 109 and 709 — with each comprising three companies. The 28 battalion is entrusted with Upper Assam.
Writer and chief coordinator of the Ulfa-constituted People’s Consultative Group Mamoni Raisom Goswami told The Telegraph this evening, “It would have been better had Ulfa as a whole sat for peace talks. That would have carried more weight.”
