Guwahati, Dec 4 (IANS) United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) chief Arabinda Rajkhowa, his deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah and eight others, including their families, surrendered before Indian authorities at a border outpost in Meghalaya early Friday.
The surrender took place at the Dawki outpost of the Border Security Force (BSF) around 6 a.m.

“The group was loitering in the border area and then they contacted BSF commanders at the outpost saying they were from the ULFA and wanted to surrender,” a senior BSF official said.

Assam police chief Shankar Baruah confirmed the reports.

“We are making arrangements to shift Rajkhowa and the others to Assam,” Baruah told journalists.

A special BSF helicopter is being requisitioned to airlift the surrendered members of the outlawed group to Guwahati.

Those who surrendered include Rajkhowa’s wife Kaveri and two children, Raju Baruah’s wife and child, Rajkhowa’s personal security guard Raja Bora, and the wife of ULFA foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury and their son.

Sasha Choudhury and ULFA’s self-styled finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika were last month handed over by Bangladesh police to Indian authorities and then later shown as arrested while trying to enter India through the border along Tripura.

The dramatic surrenders, according to highly placed intelligence sources, was necessitated after preliminary talks between the ULFA leader and home ministry officials in New Delhi in the last two days failed with Rajkhowa adamant on the group’s demand for sovereignty.

There were earlier reports that Rajkhowa was handed over by Bangladesh Police Special Branch sleuths to BSF officials and then the ULFA chairman was flown to New Delhi and lodged at an army base.

“Since the ULFA leader was adamant on holding talks on their core demand of sovereignty, there was no option but to show them as surrendered,” a senior official said requesting anonymity.

On Thursday, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told a press conference here that a “breakthrough was made” and that the whereabouts of Rajkhowa would be known in “days or maybe hours”.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday told parliament that in the next few days there would be a political statement from the ULFA regarding talks.