Guwahati: ULFA ‘general secretary’ Anup Chetia was on Wednesday extradited to India from a Bangladesh prison, where he was held for the last 17 years, a move which is being viewed as a step forward towards closing a peace agreement with the pro-talks faction of the proscribed outfit.
Chetia was flown in to the national capital from Dhaka by a CBI team, which took him over from Bangladeshi authorities there in the wee hours of Wednesday.
He will be initially kept in New Delhi and is likely to be handed to Assam Police and brought to Guwahati within a couple of days.
Chetia’s extradition was a pre-condition set by the pro-talks ULFA leaders for taking forward peace negotiations with the government and his return to home country is likely to boost the talks’ process.
A known confidant of hardliner ULFA commander Paresh Barua, Anup Chetia’s real name is Golap Barua who hails from Jeraigaon in Tinsukia district in the eastern fringe of Assam. Chetia and Baruah are also related to each other.
Though originally viewed as a hardliner militant leader, Chetia is likely to join the pro-talks bandwagon and is expected to play a key role in convincing more hardliner leaders to join the peace process.
A faction of the ULFA, led by its ‘chairman’ Arabinda Rajkhowa, is in peace talks with the government, while the hardliner faction, rechristened as ULFA (Independent) and led by ‘c-in-c’ Paresh Barua, is still waging an armed struggle for a ‘sovereign’ Assam.
The ‘founder general secretary’ of ULFA, Chetia was arrested for the first time in India in 1991 but was later released on bail.
Later, Chetia was arrested in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1997 for carrying fake passports, foreign currencies and satellite phone and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.
He was since lodged in Kashimpur prison, near Dhaka, from where he was handed to Indian authorities in the wee hours today.
At the end of his jail term in 2008, Chetia had sought political asylum in Bangladesh. He had, however, in recent times expressed desire to return home to Assam. He has an extended family consisting of his elder brother and his family and his own wife, son and daughter.
India’s attempts at getting Chetia back had failed initially in the absence of an extradition treaty with Bangladesh but the recent positive developments between the two countries has enabled India to get the ULFA leader back. (UNI)
