Zeenews Bureau
Guwahati: Signalling the government’s keenness to give momentum to the peace overtures that it has been indulging the ULFA with, a special anti-terror court here Tuesday released on bail top commanders Pradip Gogoi and Mithinga Daimary.
The banned outfit’s vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi was granted bail by the TADA court here in all six cases lodged against him paving way for his immediate release.
The court also granted bail to Mithina Daimary, the group's 'publicity secretary', as both the bail pleas were not opposed by the government.
They would be released after their lawyers furnish surety bonds. The court has also directed that they submit their passports and not leave Guwahati city without the court's permission.
While Gogoi was arrested from Kolkata in 1998, Daimary was captured by the Royal Bhutan Army during Operation All Clear in 2003. Both are currently lodged in the Guwahati Central Jail.
The government’s decision to not oppose their bail plea clearly appears to be meant to add weight behind the pro-talks faction of the ULFA – whose leaders are in Guwahati to talk to the top commanders immediately after their release.
As per reports, the pro-talks group has already placed its demands before the central as well as the state governments. The important step down, this time around, is that they are not pushing for sovereignty unlike many other central committee leaders, including the outfit’s commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, who are still adamant on their stand on sovereignty as a pre-condition for talks.
The pro-talks group is only demanding full autonomy for the state.
Earlier, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said Dispur was not objecting to the bail pleas as part of a strategy to get things moving and all efforts were being made to persuade even the elusive ULFA commander-in-chief, Paresh Barua, to come to the negotiating table.
He, however, said at the same time the government could not wait endlessly for him.
“There are indications but these not concrete. We also know that talks cannot be held in handcuffs and in jail....Our strategy of keeping the talks doors open has paid dividends in the past,” the Chief Minister said when asked about the future of the peace efforts at a news conference.
ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, who was deported from Bangladesh is also in custody in Guwahati.
First Published: Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 18:15