Chetia wants to come home
Guwahati: After spending about 16 years behind the bar in Bangladesh, the self-styled general secretary of the ULFA, Anup Chetia alias Golap Barua is apparently getting home sick and now wants to come back to Assam to spend the rest of his life there.
Chetia is now lodged in a Bangladesh jail because of his pending application for political asylum in that country. Government of India has also been trying to get Chetia back in the country so that he could join the on-going peace talks between the ULFA faction led by Arabinda Rajkhowa and the Government of India.
Union Joint Secretary (Northeast) of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Sambhu Singh has expressed hope that Chetia will be handed over to India by the end of December this year.
Chetia was arrested in Dhaka in December, 1997 for entering the country without valid documents and served seven years in jail for the specific charge. After his release from the jail Chetia sought political asylum in Bangladesh. He is now lodged in Kashimpur Jail in Bangladesh.
Making his communication to the media for the first time in the 16 years, the ULFA general secretary has stated that he has no intention to die in a jail in Bangladesh and wants to spend the rest of his life in Assam.
The letter was sent to the media in Dhaka through an unidentified person who was recently released from Kashimpur jail. It was carried in detail in a vernacular Daily based in South Assam under the credit of its representative in Dhaka. The ULFA leader has said, “Seeking political asylum in Bangladesh was a political strategy adopted by me and I have succeeded in it. The Government of India has repeatedly failed in its attempt to get me extradited to India. But now I have decided to my own initiative to go back to Assam. How long can I live in such uncertainty?”
Chetia has further stated, “Freedom is a necessity for the people of Assam. Historically, Assam was never a part of India. All the people have the right to protect their independent identity. When the State tries suppress such aspiration for self determination, pent up mistrust, frustration and hatred of the aggrieved people against the State leads to armed rebellion. That is what has happened in Assam in the form of ULFA.”
The ULFA leader in Bangladesh jail, Anup Chetia was known to be very close to Paresh Barua and it is believed that Chetia may be of great help to woo fugitive Paresh Barua to talks.
According to Sambhu Singh, India has information that Paresh Barua is now living somewhere in China and involved in gun running.