By IANS
Guwahati : Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi Saturday offered a month-long safe passage to leaders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to visit the state and gauge for themselves if people want peace and an end to violence.
"The ULFA leaders have failed to read the writing on the wall. The people of Assam want peace and not violence… Let the ULFA leaders come to Assam and see what the people want. We are ready to offer them safe passage for a period of one month," the chief minister told journalists here.
Gogoi said the top ULFA leaders, believed to be operating from outside India, were not being able to judge the sentiment of the Assamese people.
"If required we are ready to take up the matter with the central government for necessary approval for the safe passage…but let the ULFA leaders tell us they are willing to come home to meet the people and know their minds," the chief minister said.
The offer for safe passage comes after New Delhi earlier this week offered to hold talks with the ULFA if its leadership establishes direct links with the government.
National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan told a civil society team from Assam that New Delhi was ready to resume negotiations with the ULFA but wants a "communication from the rebel leaders expressing their willingness for unconditional talks".
Narayanan passed on the message to Indira Goswami, a noted Assamese writer, who met him along with three other members of a newly floated group called the Nagarik Shanti Mancha Assam (Citizen's Peace Forum of Assam).
Goswami, who was earlier heading the ULFA-nominated People's Consultative Group (PCG), also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The dialogue collapsed last September with New Delhi accusing the rebel group of stepping up violence and extortion in Assam.