Banned ULFA (I) outfit announces ceasefire for 3 months due to COVID
Fuelled by the second wave, Assam currently has a caseload of 3.15 lakh. A total of 1984 people have died of COVID.
“We have taken a decision to suspend all operations for the next three months as the people are facing immense difficulties and suffering due to the pandemic”, he said.
The banned United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) on Saturday announced a unilateral ceasefire for three months due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation in the state. ULFA(I) Commander-in-Chief Paresh Barua in a statement e-mailed to the media said that the ceasefire will come into effect immediately and the outfit will refrain from any operations during this three-month period.
“We have taken a decision to suspend all operations for the next three months as the people are facing immense difficulties and suffering due to the pandemic”, he said.
Fuelled by the second wave, Assam currently has a caseload of 3.15 lakh. A total of 1984 people have died of COVID. The state has 42,144 active cases at present.
Barua denied the outfit’s involvement in the grenade blast at Tingrai Friday which claimed the lives of one person and injured two others.
“It is unfortunate that during such difficult times faced by the people in the state, a section of security forces are trying to malign the outfit”, he alleged.
One person was killed and two others injured when two motorcycle borne persons lobbed a grenade in front of a hardware store on Friday at Tingrai under Digboi police station of Tinsukia district.
After being sworn-in, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had appealed to Baruah to come forward for peace talks.
Three employees of the ONGC were on April 21 kidnapped by suspected ULFA-I militants from its Lakwa oilfield in Assam’s Sivasagar district along the Assam-Nagaland border. Two were freed later, while one is still missing.
Before this the insurgent group had kidnapped two employees of a Delhi-based oil exploration firm, but released both of them later.
Source: Economic Times
