Dibrugarh, May 25: Almost seven years after Ulfa’s Independence Day blast that left 13 dead, including 10 schoolchildren, its leaders returned to Dhemaji today and sought pardon from the people.

Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, armed with incense sticks, offered prayers for the departed souls at the martyrs’ column, which had the victims’ pictures inscribed on it. His wife Kaberi Kachari and the outfit’s cultural secretary, Pranati Deka, accompanied him.

“Whatever has been done cannot be undone. There is no point in denying reality. We have committed a heinous crime and we will have to accept it. As chairman of the organisation, I take full responsibility for the Dhemaji blast,” Rajkhowa said later, while addressing a gathering at the open hall of the Gymnastics Club in Dhemaji town.

Rajkhowa also identified Dhemaji as one of the most painful chapters in Ulfa’s history and urged families of the victims as well the public in general to pardon the outfit for the crime.

“The Dhemaji blast will ever remain a black chapter in the history of the Ulfa movement. We, therefore, pray to the people of Assam to please pardon us,” Rajkhowa said during the meeting, presided over by Puspa Gogoi, an exponent of Tai studies and culture.

Rajkhowa added that the outfit had shown interest for a meaningful dialogue with the Centre in order to put an end to the bloodshed in Assam, as there was no use in continuing an armed struggle.

The families of the 2004 Independence Day blast victims had sought inclusion of the issue of proper rehabilitation and compensation of all the families who had lost their near and dear ones during the blast as top priority during formal talks with the government.

They had also demanded that all those killed should be accorded status of jatiya swahid (national martyrs) by Ulfa and also demanded certificates from the outfit to this effect.

“We have also demanded that the Children’s Educational and Career Development Centre (CECDC), which is being constructed in memory of the blast victims, be renamed Swahid Smrity Bhawan,” a victim’s relative said.

The centre was built at a cost of Rs 5 crore and includes a conference hall, an air-conditioned theatre, a library, a doll’s house and a museum, among others. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi inaugurated the centre in 2010.

In order to avoid possible embarrassment, Rajkhowa and a few members of his team met representatives of the victims’ families last evening at the residence of Padmeswar Borgohain, whose daughter Manashi, too, had died in the blast.

“Our loss is irreparable. Now since the peace process has begun, we think we, too, need to look ahead. We pardon them, but only under the condition that the peace process will continue and there will be a logical conclusion to it, and also there should not be any more Dhemaji episodes in Assam,” Borgohain said.

Rajkhowa, too, promised before the families that the Ulfa was committed to the peace process and would advocate a fruitful solution to the whole episode. “We will not allow the sacrifices made by thousands of our cadres and the people of Assam in general to go in vain,” he said.

“We are well aware that the road taken will not be a bed of roses. But we will have to remove the hurdles one by one and see that we can reach the conclusion in a time-bound manner. There is no point in holding talks for the sake of holding talks,” he added.