JOIN USRelease Ranjan Daimary, cadres: NLFB militant to Assam government
The National Liberation Front of Bodoland (NLFB), a new insurgent group in Assam's Bodoland region, which came overground and declared a ceasefire on July 22 has demanded the release of rebel leader Ranjan Daimary and its cadres from jail for facilitating the surrender of their cadres.
Daimary, the founder of the now-disbanded National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) is in jail since January 2019 when he and nine others were convicted by a special court in the 2008 serial bomb blast case in Assam.
"Daimary should be released from jail since the NDFB has already signed the new Bodoland Accord and has been disbanded. At the same time, at least 70 to 80 cadres of NDFB and NLFB are also in jail and they should also be released before we surrender and NLFB is disbanded like the NDFB," M. Batha, "military chief" of NLFB said in Guwahati.
Three top leaders of NLFB including Batha, a "most wanted militant" and 20 other cadres came overground with weapons and declared a ceasefire on Thursday. Although they deposited their weapons to Assam police, Batha said they did not surrender and only declared ceasefire following an appeal by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
There are nearly 200 cadres of NLFB, Batha claimed.
Sarma met Batha on Thursday in Guwahati hours after they came in a bus and deposited their weapons near the India-Bhutan border. Two Bodo youths, Rajkumar Prithviraj Narayan Dev Mech and Thulunga Basumatary acted as mediators to bring the NLFB from the jungles to the talks table.
B. Bungtigwra, president of NLFB submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister demanding that a separate agreement be signed with them at the state level and the NLFB be recognised as a separate organisation. He also demanded the withdrawal of cases pending against members of both NLFB and NDFB.
The NLFB was formed soon after all four factions of NDFB signed a new Bodoland Accord with the government in January last year. The NDFB, which carried out a violent movement since 1986 was disbanded and more than 4,000 of its cadres surrendered to join the mainstream.
However, unhappy with the new accord, Batha, a former "commander" of NDFB and a few of his associates went underground and formed the NLFB. This came as a setback to the BJP-led government in Assam to project the Bodoland as the violence-free region ahead of Assembly elections held in March-April.