Guwahati, December 5
Belying the claim made by Central agencies about “surrender” by ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa along with deputy commander-in-chief and military spokesman Raju Baruah and his bodyguard sergeant Raja Bora, the most wanted ULFA leaders today said they had not surrendered and would never surrender.

“We haven’t surrendered and will not surrender. There is no possibility of holding peace talks soon. It is not proper to talk about dialogue with handcuffed hands,” said Rajkhowa and Baruah while being taken to the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (Kamrup district) Robin Phukon here.

They were inside the court for about 20 minutes. Counsel for ULFA leaders Bijon Mahajan said the court remanded the three in 12-day police custody. The special operation unit (SOU) of the Assam Police had sought 14-day custody of ULFA leaders.

The counsel said the ULFA leaders were booked under Section 384 of the IPC read with Section 10/13 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He said charges under Section 384 of the IPC and Section 13 of the UAP Act were non-bailable. He said family members of the ULFA leaders were not produced before the court as they were non-combatants.

A large number of people had been waiting since morning outside the court premises around which the police had set up barricades to keep onlookers at bay.

A group youths shouted “ULFA zindabad, Arabinda Rajkhowa zindabad” as soon as ULFA leaders alighted from the bus in front of the court premises, much to astonishment and embarrassment of policemen standing on guard there.Earlier in the day, fugitive commander-in-chief of ULFA Paresh Baruah, in an e-mailed statement to a section of the media here, said, “The statement of GK Pillai and new reports saying that ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, military spokesman Raju Barauh and sergeant Raja Bora have surrendered and that ULFA has suffered a split are baseless and motivated. This is a deep-rooted conspiracy of the colonial rulers to crush the struggle for freedom and malign top leader of ULFA. We are all aware of the dedication and sacrifice of our respected chairman over the past 30 years, and we strongly believe that our honourable chairman has not surrendered and will never do so.”

“However, we are still for an honourable negotiation, but that has to take place only on the issue of sovereignty and nothing else. There is no split and we have full faith and confidence in our chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa,” Paresh Baruah said.