Pro-talk ULFA hails Chetia’s return to India

Hossain was released from Dum Dum central jail on Thursday evening and will be sent back to Bangladesh soon, a senior government official said.

The CBI is probing the murder case of ex-councillor of Golaghat Deboksi Dhar Chaudhury. Haldar told TOI, “After the administrative procedures are over, we will have to talk to him and find if he supports the peace process”. Speaking to The Hindu, a short while before the deportation, State Minister for Home Affairs of Bangladesh Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said he was optimistic of securing custody of Nur Hossein from India. Authorities will produce him by next week in an Assam court in connection with a March 21, 1988, murder case. The CBI took Chetia on a six-day transit remand and he is likely to be brought to Guwahati in the next couple of days. The central executive committee of the faction, led by its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, will represent the outfit at the meeting and they expect Chetia to be on board as well. “Gogoi also said that Government of India should give Anup Chetia adequate opportunity to play an important role in the peace talks between government and pro-talk faction of the ULFA”, Gogoi said. He was killed by ULFA rebels on August 29, 1986 and Chetia is alleged to be involved in its criminal conspiracy. He was charged in the court for illegal entry and trespassing into India. In India, Chetia is wanted for killings, abductions, bank robberies and extortion activities.

The ULFAs founder general secretary sought political asylum in Bangladesh thrice in 2005, 2008 and in 2011 after Bangladesh police arrested him in December, 1997 and was subsequently handed down seven years of jail terms by two courts for cross-border intrusion, carrying fake passports and illegally keeping foreign currencies. The court had directed that Chetia be kept in safe custody till his petition was decided upon.

“I am going back willingly and consciously and in good health”, the Minister quoted Chetia as saying.

Chetia was in Bangladesh ever since he fled India in early 1990s.