ULFA asks NE TV to pack up

Guwahati, Jan 30 (UNI) The United Liberation Front of Asom(ULFA) today asked private television channel, NE TV, to pack up and leave Asom within one month for fabricating "false" news.

Barely 12 hours back, Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi announced in New Delhi that he was moving court against the channel for broadcasting "false and misleading news" regarding ULFA and Asom government.

The NE TV is the first private channel in the region owned by former Congress MP Matang Singh's family, who rose to fame during P V Narasimha Rao's time, and was subsequently expelled from the party for his alleged anti-party activities.

The bone of contention is the news shown by the channel, which said the ULFA and Asom government has struck a Rs 20 crore deal to broker peace before the National Games through a private company in Kolkata during Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's recent visit.

The chief minister, while addressing a press conference at New Delhi, said that the NE TV was constantly "provoking violence by fabricating reports." He challenged the NE TV to prove the alleged Rs 20 crore deal.

''If they can prove it, I will quit from politics. I will not stoop so low to buy peace when the ULFA was killing innocent people.

It was a mistake to take PCG into confidence and relax the army operation. Now I will continue operations in a very hard way,'' he said.

The ULFA Commander-in-Chief Paresh Baruah in a terse four line statement has asked the NE TV to leave Asom within one month or face dire consequences if the news could not be proved. ''The news has harmed the ULFA's moral high ground and the ULFA has not made any hesitation to admit that they would not lie low,'' Mr Baruah said.

''The TV channel must prove the news before the people of Asom,'' said Mr Baruah, who has been maintaining studied silence during the past one month of violence.

NETV Chairman cum Managing Director Manoranjan Singh told UNI that "this was an attack on media".

''The very fact that the statements of Chief Minister and ULFA C-in-C Paresh Baruah are similar and it only reconfirms our long suspicion that the ULFA are in connivance with the Congress.

We do stand by our story that they had reached a secret understanding to deescalate violence before the National Games. But I must also tell you that we never mentioned the sum transacted for the deal,'' Singh said.

''However, the government is trying to bring NE TV to its knees,'' Singh said asserting that her channel would stand by the story that ULFA and the Congress had struck the deal.

UNI