From Our Correspondant
GUWAHATI: The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and its activities and recent split into pro-talks and anti-talks factions have been much discussed and debated issue related to contemporary Assam’s social and economic life as well as internal security scene.
However, there has not been any collective compilation/documentation of events related to the ULFA and its secessionists movement which started way back in 1979, till Nanda Talukdar Foundation and Bhabani Books in Guwahati came up with a book on the ULFA in Assamese language early this week, coninciding with the 13th Guwahati Book Fair that has undergone since December 13 here. The ULFA as an organization is now at the most crucial turn of its history as the organization as a whole has split with majority of its top rung and founder leaders taking the peace talk route to find a solution to the prolonged unrest in the state.
On this critical juncture, Nanda Talukdar Foundation and the Bhabani Books have jointly published the history of the organization titled “ULFA” in Assamese.
The book has been co-authored by Journalist Mrinal Talukdar and lawyer-writer Kishore Kumar Kalita. The book has 10 chapters (289 pages) and priced at Rs 199. It has handled subjects from the root of secession in Assam to the spilt in the ULFA. It has a long interview of ‘Chairman’ of the ULFA (pro-talks) Arabinda Rajkhowa besides a 32- page time line of the activities of ULFA from 1979-2011. The authors said the book was a fruit of last nine months of research.
It is tough to write the history of a banned organization as almost entire data have to be collected from newspaper reports, police archives beside information gleaned from some senior ULFA leaders. There may be mistakes and omissions given that it was the first book on the history of the ULFA.
