A policeman inspects a flag of Ulfa at Bokata Potia in Sivasagar district on Monday. Telegraph picture

Guwahati, April 7: Ulfa (Independent) unfurled its flag on the outskirts of Tezpur town on its 35th foundation day today but remained silent on the Lok Sabha elections, which was conducted in five seats in Assam.

The chairman of the group, Abhijit Asom, in his foundation day statement today, was critical of the operations carried out by security forces against it and the killing of its members and supporters. However, the statement did not utter a single word about the election.

Ulfa, formed on April 7 in 1979 with a demand for an “independent Assam”, has always remained critical of the election process.

The group had even threatened the ruling Congress and its leaders ahead of the 2011 Assembly election and in the past asked the people to abstain from voting.

The statement today reiterated its resolve to carry forwards the “struggle for sovereignty”.

Many others, observing the 35-year-long Ulfa-government conflict, termed the group’s silence on elections a realisation of its eroded public support base, particularly among the youths.

Police in Sonitpur district immediately brought down the Ulfa flag, which was found flying in front of the Chitralekah Mahila Samity office at Borjhar Saikia Suburi, nearly 9km from Tezpur town, minutes before poling for the 16th Lok Sabha election began around 7am.

Polling was conducted in Tezpur (Sonitpur district), Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur Lok Sabha constituencies and passed off peacefully.

The group also emailed photographs of its members celebrating the foundation day in a hideout.

Elections in Assam have always been under threat from militants, particularly Ulfa, but this time security forces considered the group’s threat to be inconsequential.

“The day (Ulfa foundation day) is inconsequential. Ulfa is defanged now,” additional director-general of Assam police (law and order), A.P. Rout, had told The Telegraph recently.

Ulfa’s threat started gradually declining as most of its top leaders, including its chairman, Arabinda Rajkhowa, were “pushed back” from Bangladesh in 2010 and subsequently started talks with the government.

The Paresh Barua group, however, later renamed it Ulfa (Independent) and announced that Abhijit Asom was its new chairman.

Shifting from its customary threat to parties, political leaders and voters to abstain from elections in the past, the group today was critical of the youths from Assam working outside the state “to enhance India’s economic growth”.

“Unfortunately some of our youths have chosen to leave for various parts of India, wanting to advance in life. They are even prepared to forego their own identity to slave away for Indian masters to scratch out a living like a refugee. Instead of staying put in Assam with pride and being entrepreneurial in a land where wild paddy grows in abundance even in uncultivated fields, why are they turning their backs and choosing to give their services to enhance India’s economic growth with the mentality of a slave?” the statement, emailed to The Telegraph, said.