Click to play videoNew Delhi: United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, who has been arrested by the Bangladeshi authorities, says he is ready for talks with the Indian Government.
Government sources said that Centre is considering giving safe passage to Rajkhowa to facilitate the peace talks.
Rajkhowa's wife Kavita and two sons have also been reportedly kept under house arrest in Uttara in Dhaka.
Even though a faction of the ULFA top brass remains reluctant about brokering peace with the Government, Rajkhowa has reportedly been flown in from Bangladesh and has been handed over to the Indian authorities.
However, there has been no official confirmation of the handover.
Sources say that 42 bank accounts held by Rajkhowa in a Dhaka bank were frozen in March. The accounts held deposits worth Rs 3,900 crore most of which was extortion money.
Sources say Rajkhowa held the accounts under the name of Arbinda Ray and the accounts were frozen two months after Sheikh Hasina came to power in Bangladesh. Hasina government is also putting pressure on him for talks with India.
Rajkhowa is expected to make a political statement soon, paving the way for initiating peace talks between New Delhi and the ULFA.
Rajkhowa, who was arrested in Chittagong on Monday night by the Rapid Action Battalion and ULFA Spokesperson Apurba Bora were reportedly flown into New Delhi in a special flight of the Border Security Force.
"We are willing to have peace talks with them provided they abjure violence," said Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.
Rajkhowa has long been an advocate for talks within the ULFA, but the group's Commander-in-Chief Paresh Barua has vehemently opposed holding any discussion with the Government except on the issue of sovereignty of Assam.
Back in 1992, Rajkhowa was flown into Delhi along with two other founding members of the ULFA, Anup Chetia and Pradip Gogoi. For 11 days, New Delhi and Rajkhowa talked peace and then the three leaders went back to Bangladesh to convince Barua.
Barua, however, made it clear that no further talks would happen without his permission.
Rajkhowa's expected handover comes just after Dhaka and New Delhi finalised three draft agreements on signing a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.
Accused of several cases including that of waging a war against India, Rajkhowa also has an Interpol Red Corner notice against him, issued in June 1997.
Two top ULFA leaders, Finance Secretry Chitraban Hazarika and Foreign Secretary Sashadhar Chowdhury were detained and handed over to India unofficially a few weeks back, in the absence of a formal extradition treaty.
CNN-IBN has learnt that the deal with Rajkhowa was struck after ULFA's finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika and foreign secrretary Sashadhar Chowdhury were detained and pushed back into India. They gave pin-pointed location of Rajkhowa to Indian interrogators which was passed on to Bangladesh. Both the men also spoke to Rajkhowa over phone, urging him to start peace talks.
Rajkhowa's arrest also indicates a division within the party. Leaders like him are in favour of talks and the anti-talk section headed Barua are against talks.
"I want to clear my stand that I still stand for the cause of Assamese people. We are against the domination of the Assamese community by mainstream India. We don't want our revolution to end but there should be a peaceful solution to it preferably in a constitutional way. I want peace talks to restart and conclude successfully. There are certain sections of people on both the sides who want to disrupt the peace talks that is why I have come forward to carry on my agenda," Rajkhowa told NE TV.
It seems that with his arrest peace has another chance in Assam.
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