Himalayan News Service

Guwahati, December 31:

A leading separatist group in India’s northeastern state of Assam today expressed the hope that the New Year would usher in a political solution to end decades of bloodshed in the region.

“We sincerely hope the New Year will help us work out a permanent and acceptable political solution to end long years of bloodshed and killings in the state,” Arabinda Rajkhowa, chairman of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), said in a statement.

The outlawed outfit is fighting for an independent homeland since 1979.

“We need to fight for our rights and help stop economic exploitation of our people and check cultural invasion to achieve our objectives in the New Year,” the rebel leader said. The ULFA is blamed by police for carrying out a string of explosions in Assam in December in which five people were killed and 91 wounded. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had last fortnight

offered to hold peace talks with the ULFA if the outfit abjured violence.

The ULFA rejected New Delhi’s invitation for peace talks because the offer demanded it renounce violence and did not mention its main demand of sovereignty. The ULFA has, of late, come under fire from the people of Assam over its violent campaign that have killed many civilians.