United Liberation Front reang rebels surrender

Guwahati, Sep 30: The United Liberation Front of Barak Valley (ULFBV), an insurgent outfit active in south Assam, laid down arms before Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at a ceremony here on Tuesday, Sep 30.

All the 305 cadres, led by 'president' Pancharam Apeto, surrendered after waging an armed struggle since its formation in 2001, with 28 violent incidents registered against it. It was also involved in the kidnapping of 42 people, mostly for extortion, but was not indicted in serious crimes, like murder.

Founded mainly by members of the Reang community, the ULFBV's areas of influence included Hailakandi and Karimganj districts, with their main agenda being a better quality of life and development for about 10,000 population of Reang community living in over 30 villages in the area.

The outfit members laid down arms and ammunition, including three AK-47 rifles, 60 12-Bore gun, seven 9 mm pistols, four 303 rifles, one M16 rifle, grenades, mortars.

The outfit had received logistic support and training from DHD, NSCN(IM), NLFT and UNLF. Some of its cadres were also trained at Nagaland, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

This is the third insurgent group that has come for talks this year, after two companies of ULFA and DHD (Jewel faction).

Welcoming the surrendered militants back to mainstream, Chief Minister exhorted other insurgent outfits to follow the suit as armed struggle has been proved futile with more and more groups forsaking arms.

UNI