644 militants surrender with 177 arms in Assam

A total of 644 cadres of eight militant groups in Assam laid down their arms here on Thursday morning and pledged to be part of a government scheme meant for their rehabilitation.

This is the biggest surrender programme in Assam's four-decades-long insurgency problem.

The 644 militants including some top leaders belongs to United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Saoraigwra), CPI (Maoists), National Liberation Front of Bengali (301), National Santhal Liberation Army (87), Adivasi Dragon Fighters (178) and Rabha National Liberation Front.

Many of these cadres had undergone training in their camps in neighbouring Myanmar but had to leave after last year's crackdown on Indian rebel groups.

"Yes the crackdown is one of the reasons. But we also want a solution to the cause for which we had taken up arms. We hope talks can address the problems," Dipjyoti Handique, a cadres of Ulfa (Independent) told DH after depositing his weapon with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, here. Newly married Handique had left his home at Chabua in Dibrugarh district in Eastern Assam and joined Ulfa (I) in 2014. He had spend five years in Myanmar camps before the country launched a crackdown.

While Ulfa (I) still fights for "sovereign Assam," NLFB wants an end to citizenship crisis faced by the state's Bengali community, Adivasi groups want Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, the Rabha and NDFB wants seperate states.

The rebel groups handed over their weapons to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal here at a function. The surrender ceremony comes days after NDFB (S) led by B Saoraigwra signed a suspension of operation agreement with the Centre and Assam government and is likely to sign a comprehensive agreement along with three other factions of the banned outfit.

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"We hope and urge all of them to create an atmosphere of permanent peace in the state and be part of the development process. They can reap the benefit of government's efforts to project the Northeast as the gateway of South-East Asian nations under the Centre's Act East Policy," Sonowal said.

The cadres laid down arms such as AK47, AK56, Heckler and Koch, M-16, Baretto pistols, grenades and bombs.

The Centre had last year revised the grant for surrendered militants and raised it to Rs 4 lakh from Rs 1 lakh and the monthly stipend to Rs 6,000 from Rs 3,500 for three years. The revised policy also includes provisions for vocational training, funds for the construction of rehabilitation camps and compulsory Aadhaar biometric registration of surrenderees.

The surrender-cum-rehabilitation policy in the Northeast has been implemented since 1998. The revised policy is aimed at attracting more militants to the mainstream.

A large number of cadres belonging to Ulfa (I), KLO and others, however, are still out of the peace process.