Top Indian Separatists Arrested: Official
Friday, December 4, 2009 at 3:37 pm under Indian News Top Indian Separatists Arrested: Official
NEW DELHI news updates: Key separatist leaders from India’s northeast have been arrested in Bangladesh and handed over to Indian authorities, a security official told AFP on Friday.
Chairman of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Arabinda Rajkhowa, was arrested this week in Dhaka along with the group’s deputy military chief, a body guard and seven family members.
“Bangladesh has handed over the top leaders of ULFA and their family members to India to investigate all the criminal cases against them,” said Vijay Singh, a spokesman from India’s Border Security Force in New Delhi.
ULFA, one of the most influential rebel armies in the northeast among 30-odd militant groups active in the region, has been fighting for an independent homeland for ethnic Assamese since 1979.
Rajkhowa was the subject of an international arrest warrant from Interpol since 1997 for a range of crimes, including murder, extortions, and kidnappings.
At least 10,000 people, most civilians, have died in Assam state because of fighting between government forces and the rebels.
Rajkhowa, 53, was placed under house-arrest by the Bangladeshi security forces and was handed over to India on Friday morning at an outpost along the India-Bangladesh border, Singh said.
Last month, Bangladesh handed over two other ULFA leaders — foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury and finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika — to Indian authorities after they were picked up from rented accommodation in Dhaka.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi suggested Thursday that the government might hold peace talks with Rajkhowa.
In the past, the rebel group has demanded that the issue of sovereignty or independence be discussed at any talks, which the government rejected.
“All I can say is that the ULFA can discuss anything, all issues, except their demand of sovereignty, when they hold peace talks with the government,” Gogoi said in Assam’s main city, Guwahati.
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