Guwahati: Outlawed ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam), NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) and KLO (Kamtapur Liberation Organisation), being pounded in Bhutan by the Royal Army, have jointly called a 48-hour general strike in Assam and parts of North Bengal from tomorrow (Dec 20, 2003) as a mark of protest against it and the killing of ULFA political advisor Bhimakanta Buragohain.

In e-mails sent to the local media, the three outfits, who had lost 19 camps jointly and about 120 members, said the Royal Bhutan Army had launched its December 15 operation "without any clear ultimatum".

"The joint forces of Indian and Royal Bhutan Army are brutally killing old people, women and children," the joint statement alleged.

The forces, it said, did not give safe passage to octogenarian Bhimakanta Buragohain - called "mama" by the ULFA cadres - women and children in violation of Geneva Convention as well as all civil norms of modern war.

"In protest against such operations the ULFA, NDFB and KLO have called Assam-Bodoland-Kamtapur (Assam and parts of North Bengal) general strike from 5 am tomorrow," the statement said.

The strike would be extended indefinitely if the militants' demand for return of the bodies of the cadres killed in Bhutan, including that of Buragohain, within 24 hours, was not met with, it added.

PTI

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