Policemen struggle to remove a protester from National Highway 37 on Monday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, July 17: The gains from the peace process initiated by Mamoni Raisom Goswami seemed to evaporate fast in the heat of the banned Ulfa?s anger against the government a day after the writer stepped in again to restrain both sides.

Ulfa used its mouthpiece, Freedom, to claim that the government?s peace initiative was nothing more than an election gimmick. The statement accused the government of conveniently forgetting that it needed to release jailed Ulfa leaders and provide information on the militants who went missing during the military operation by Bhutan in 2003.

The militant group threatened to intensify its ?agitation? if Delhi and Dispur continued to ignore its demands.

The diatribe coincided with a rail and national highway blockade by the People?s Committee for Peace Initiatives in Assam in protest against the delay in releasing five jailed Ulfa leaders and the government?s reluctance to suspend army operations and punish security personnel involved in the ?mass killings? in Kakopathar early this year.

The organisation set July 30 as the deadline for the government to accede to the demands.

Police rounded up around 50-odd protesters from Chabua, in Dibrugarh district, when they were trying to block National Highway 37. There were similar scenes in Tinsukia town and elsewhere in the state. Traffic all along NH 37, which links Lower and Upper Assam, was disrupted. Train services were normal, the Northeast Frontier Railway said. The trigger for the crisis was an army and police crackdown on Ulfa militants in East Garo Hills district of Meghalaya and Baksa district of Assam on July 11. Four militants were killed in the Garo hills operation and two in Baksa.

The statement in Freedom said cessation of hostilities by Ulfa would ?naturally follow? if Delhi?s actions manifested its desire to end the ?Indo-Assam political conflict?.

The outfit claimed to know of ?internal differences? between Delhi and Dispur over the ?strategy? to be adopted for resolution of the conflict. ?After the third round of dialogue (between the Ulfa-constituted People?s Consultative Group and the Union home ministry), an internal difference on the strategy for resolution of the issue has developed among Indian colonial rulers. The local government opted for suspension of anti-Ulfa operations while the government in Delhi laid emphasis on continuation of the same in full swing.?