Syed Zarir Hussain

Guwahati, February 8:

An influential separatist group in Assam has sent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a formal offer of peace talks aimed at ending more than 26 years of insurgency in the region, a rebel mediator said today.

An emissary of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) yesterday handed over the letter from the group’s chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa to Assamese writer Indira Goswami, sought by the outfit to mediate for talks with New Delhi.

“I had received a sealed letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from the ULFA chairman,” Goswami told this correspondent. “The letter contains ULFA’s terms and conditions for talks with New Delhi. The ULFA wants the core issue of sovereignty or independence to be discussed in the talks.” This is the first time the ULFA, a rebel group fighting for an independent Assamese homeland since 1979, has made a formal offer of talks with New Delhi by sending a letter to the PM.

The author said the letter was in response to an offer by India’s National Security Advisor MK Narayanan last fortnight for holding talks with the ULFA in a neutral country. “Narayanan told me to get a formal letter from the ULFA expressing their desire for talks with the government. I had conveyed the same to the ULFA and this letter has come in now,” said Goswami. The letter will be handed over to the PMO tomorrow.