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Move to bring Paresh for talks

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Feb 19 � Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said that efforts are on to rope in ULFA Commander-in-Chief Paresh Barua in the process for a negotiated settlement of the 31-year-old ULFA insurgency. He was addressing a press conference at Dispur.

However, he made it clear that the Government would not wait for the ULFA C-in-C for an indefinite period. �But if he (Barua) does not come, it does not mean that we will keep on waiting for him for an indefinite period,� said Gogoi.

On the response from ULFA towards the efforts to resolve the issues through negotiation, Gogoi said that some feelers were there from the outfit. But things are yet to take a definite shape, he said.

In reply to a question on the strategy formulated by the bureaucrats to initiate the negotiation process, he said that he was not aware of any such process. �I am not aware of any of the strategies formulated for the purpose at the bureaucratic level. We will rather formulate the strategy for the purpose.

�In the past, bureaucrats used to formulate strategies for such purposes. But these days, we (political heads) formulate strategies for the purpose,� he said.

It needs mention here that Union Home Secretary GK Pillai told newspersons at a press conference here on February 9 that a strategy for holding talks with ULFA was formulated by the Central Government at the bureaucratic level and the final decision on the issue was left to the Union Home Minister and the Assam Chief Minister.

Pillai also said that day that the Government�s decision on holding talks with the militant outfit with or without Paresh Barua also rested on the Union Home Minister and the Assam Chief Minister.

Gogoi denied the Opposition charges that his Government is maintaining a link with the extremist outfits. �Where is the question of a nexus between us and the extremist groups? We are keeping our doors open and our contacts in these groups are alive so as to bring them to the mainstream of the society.

�My strategy has been paying dividends with many of these extremist groups like the KLNLF and the pro-talk faction of the NDFB coming for negotiated settlement of the contentious issues,� he said.

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