By Syed Zarir Hussain
Guwahati, Dec 9 (IANS) The Guwahati central jail has become the meeting point for four top separatist leaders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to set the wheels of the deadlocked peace process moving, a step facilitated by the government.

ULFA vice president Pradeep Gogoi, self-styled foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury, finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika, and the outfit’s publicity chief Mithinga Daimary have been holding intense discussions inside the Guwahati jail over the past two days.

While Gogoi and Daimary were arrested earlier and lodged at the Guwahati jail, Choudhury and Hazarika were handed over to Indian authorities last month by Bangladesh and were sent to judicial remand Monday by a local court here.

“The investigating agencies could have very well asked for 30 more days of police custody of Choudhury and Hazarika before the chief judicial magistrate’s court on Monday. But they did not press for police custody, thereby giving ample hint that the government wanted the duo to be in jail to meet their comrades already in prison,” Bijon Mahajan, lawyer for Choudhury and Hazarika, told IANS.

Gogoi was arrested in 1998, while Daimary was captured by Bhutanese troops in 2003 inside the Himalayan nation and then handed over to Indian authorities.

“This is a positive move that the four top ULFA leaders were able to share their views on peace talks and I would say this is a good beginning and a well planned government strategy to allow them to talk inside the jail,” Mahajan said.

According to prison officials, the four ULFA leaders were allowed to share a common cell so that they could exchange views and talk amongst them for the larger interest of peace in the state.

There are also moves to shift ULFA’s octogenarian political adviser and ideologue, Bhimkanta Burhagohain, now in jail in the northern town of Tezpur, to the Guwahati prison.

Burhagohain, popularly known among the ULFA’s rank and file as ‘Mama’ (uncle) and captured by Bhutan in 2003 during Operation All Clear, could be another key player in pushing the peace process forward.

Security and legal experts said the government might very soon try and complete the interrogation process of arrested ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and the deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah and also send the duo to the Guwahati jail.

“This is part of a broad strategy to facilitate meeting of the seven top ULFA leaders inside the jail and then work out a formula for holding peace talks minus the elusive commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah,” a senior intelligence official said.

Rajkhowa and Baruah, along with eight more, were handed over to Indian authorities by Bangladesh last Friday and three of them were later shown as arrested.