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Center, NDFB to sign accord tomorrow
Guwahati, Jan. 25 (PTI): NDFB (R) supremo Ranjan Daimary, sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2008 serial blasts in Assam, was on Saturday released on interim bail from the Guwahati Central Jail and taken to New Delhi for participation in the Bodo peace talks with the Union government.
A specially constituted division bench of the Gauhati High Court had on Friday granted him interim bail for four weeks, following which he was released from jail and escorted to the Lokopriyo Gopinath International airport enroute to New Delhi, Daimary’s lawyer Manas Sarania told reporters.
Daimary was asked to pay a surety bond of INR 50,000 and the government directed to make adequate security arrangements for his travel, Sarania said.
“The bail application was filed to facilitate Daimary’s participation in the peace talks between the Centre and various National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) factions,” he said.
Daimary was sentenced to life imprisonment along with nine others for their involvement in October 30, 2008 bomb blasts which claimed the lives of 88 people and injured more than 500.
The Centre is all set to sign an accord with the banned Assam-based insurgent group National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) on Monday, providing political and economic bonanza to the tribals, sans the outfit’s key demand of a separate Bodoland state or union territory.
The tripartite agreement will be signed in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal by top leadership of the four factions of the NDFB, Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg and Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna.
“The accord will provide for some political rights to the Bodo tribals living in Assam and some economic package for the community,” a senior official privy to the development said.
However, the official made it clear that the territorial integrity of Assam will be maintained and the key demand of the NDFB, which is either a separate state or a UT, is not going to be entertained.
“The accord will be within the framework of the Constitution without splitting the state,” another official said.
Earlier this month, the NDFB(S) faction, led by B Saoraigwra, signed an agreement to abjure violence, following which the government suspended operations against the outfit.
The four factions of the NDFB, which will sign the pact, are led by Ranjan Daimari, Govinda Basumatary, Dhiren Boro and B Saoraigra.
In the accord, the government is likely to ensure safeguard of Bodo language and culture and related matters.
A commission is also likely to be set up to take views of a cross section of the people in Assam in providing some specific political rights to the Bodos.
Promise to set up a sports university and job-oriented higher education institutions are also expected to be part of the pact.
However, it is immediately not clear whether the status of the existing Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) will be enhanced.
It will be the third Bodo accord to be signed in last 27 years when the violent movement for a separate Bodoland state claimed hundreds of lives, destruction of public and private properties.
The first Bodo accord was signed with the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) in 1993, leading to creation of a Bodoland Autonomous Council with limited political powers.
The demand for a separate state for the Bodos has been going on in Assam for about five decades and several Bodo overground and militant groups raising it leading to agitations, protests, violence and many deaths.