Ulfa leader Chitrabon Hazarika after his release in Guwahati on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Jan. 12: Ulfa finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika, the last central committee member of the outfit in prison, walked out of Guwahati Central Jail this morning.

With his release, all the eight jailed members of Ulfa’s central committee were freed on bail, clearing the decks for the much-anticipated talks between the government and the outfit.

The outfit’s central executive committee is now in a position to meet and take a formal decision on holding talks with the government. The executive’s decision would then have to be ratified by the general council which is a larger body that includes commanders of the battalions and their second-in-command.

Hazarika was arrested near India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya in November last year after he was pushed back to India by Bangladeshi forces.

Stepping out of jail, Hazarika told reporters that illegal migrants from Bangladesh must be deported from Assam and demanded special measures to stop illegal influx from the neighbouring country.

He thanked the Centre and the Assam government for facilitating the release of all top Ulfa leaders, including him, from jail by not objecting to their bail pleas.

Hazarika said the outfit wanted to solve the problem peacefully through negotiation and for that purpose they had come forward for unconditional talks and holding preliminary discussion with the Centre-appointed interlocutor to prepare the ground for starting a formal dialogue with the government.

Hazarika said that he is optimistic that Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua would also join the peace process.

He was received by his family and supporters outside the jail before he left for his native home at Jakhalabandha in Nagaon district in a convoy of vehicles. On his way back home, he addressed a few meetings organised to welcome him. Hazarika told a meeting at Dakhinpat in Nagaon district that it was because of some loopholes in the Constitution that the state had been exploited for years as a result of which they had to take up arms.

The government started the process of releasing the Ulfa central committee members from jail last year when they indicated that they were in favour of talks and insisted that they be freed first to be able to hold their central committee meeting where the final decision on holding talks would be taken.

The first to be freed was vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi, and it was followed by the release of publicity chief Mithinga Daimary, political ideologue Bhimkanta Buragohain, cultural secretary Pranati Deka, deputy commander-in-chief Raju Barua, chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, and self-styled foreign secretary Sashadhar Choudhury.