In front of Amit Shah, Assam politician offers to broker peace with insurgent group

Hagrama Mohilary also said he would bring those rebels, who were in the jungle, to the talks table if the Union Ministry of Home Affairs so desired.
Home Minister Amit Shah( File Photo| PTI)
Home Minister Amit Shah( File Photo| PTI)

GUWAHATI: Assam’s former rebel leader-turned-politician, Hagrama Mohilary, has offered to broker peace between the Centre and a faction of the insurgent group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) which is still waging a war.

Mohilary, who is the chief of BJP ally Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), made the proposal to Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a meeting of non-Congress North East Democratic Alliance here on Monday.

“Assam has the problem of insurgency and everybody knows it. In our Bodo area, there is the NDFB. To end the problem, I want the Centre to expedite the process of talks with the Dhiren Bodo faction of the NDFB,” Mohilary said.

He said he would bring those rebels, who were in the jungle, to the talks table if the Union Ministry of Home Affairs so desired.

“Some are in the jungle. If the Home Ministry wants, I will mediate to bring them to the talks table. I have the conviction that I can do this. That way, we can solve the NDFB problem,” Mohilary asserted as Shah was listening to the BPF chief in rapt attention.

The NDFB has four factions. Three of them are lying low, thanks to the peace process. The only faction, which is outside the purview of the talks, was responsible for the massacre of nearly 80 people in a series of attacks in December 2014.

Mohilary was the chief of erstwhile insurgent group Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT).

It was disbanded following its signing of the historic Bodo Accord with the Centre in 2003 which led to the creation of BTC.

The BTC administers four districts which fall under Bodoland Territorial Areas District in Lower Assam.

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