Pro-talks Ulfa unmoved

Pro-talks Ulfa members were quick to distance themselves from the sensational Chittagong arms haul, minutes after their former commander-in-chief Paresh Barua was sentenced to death on Thursday by a Bangladesh court for smuggling 10-truck loads of arms into Chittagong in 2004.

“We have nothing to do with it (arms smuggling) and it (verdict) will have no bearing on our peace talks with the government of India,” a senior member of the executive committee of the pro-talks Ulfa, Raju Baruah told reporters in Assam, reacting to the verdict.

He said it would not be apt for his organisation to give an elaborate reaction on the matter as a court of a foreign country has pronounced the verdict.

Raju Baruah as a self-styled deputy-commander-in- chief, was second to Paresh Barua in the hierarchy of the armed wing of the undivided Ulfa, when the arms haul took place.

He, however, neither justified nor condemned bringing such a huge consignment of arms into Bangladesh, ostensibly under the instruction of Paresh Barua.

“He definitely might have brought the arms for the organisation (Ulfa). But it will be difficult for me to say whether it was right, because the issue was never been discussed in the highest policy making body of the organisation,” Raju Baruah said.

He, however, said his organisation would definitely stand by their former leader “in his this hour of crisis” provided the latter join them in the peace parleys with the government.

Pro-talks Ulfa led by Arabinda Rajkhowa, is engaged in peace talks with the government since 2011, after Awami League government in Dhaka flushed them out of Bangladesh.

Paresh Barua, however, had fled Bangladesh at that time and relocated himself to Upper Myanmar.

Meanwhile, Assam government has not yet officially reacted to the verdict, though the matter was discussed at a high-level security meeting attended by Assam police’s top brass, including Director General of Police, Khagen Sarma, in Guwahati on Thursday.

But off the record, both police and state home department officials did not hide their glee.

“It is a major setback for Paresh Barua, who is desperately trying to re-establish base in Bangladesh after finding it difficult to operate from jungles of Myanmar,” a senior Assam Police official told bdnews24.com over phone from Guwahati.

But in the same breath he pointed out that the verdict was pronounced by a lower court and the convicts would get chance to appeal in the higher court.