GUWAHATI: Eight hostages including senior government officials spent their 58th day in Captivity as deadline set for their release by their United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) captors expired Tuesday.
The Congress-I chief minister of the insurgency ridden northeastern state of Assam Hiteswar Saikia announced that his government was prepared to release detained ULFA activists if the militants were prepared to identify them.
The ULFA had warned as late as Monday that it would kill the hostages one by one if its activists and supporters held under the Terrorist and Disruptive (Prevention of) Act (TADA) since July 1 were not released by Aug.27.
Saikia in a radio broadcast in the evening said ULFA would have to identify the activists it wanted released as otherwise complete chaos and lawlessness would prevail if arrests were altogether stopped.
The ULFA has demanded immediate halt of raids and arrest of its activists as a condition for release of the hostages.
Stating that raids would stop automatically if the ULFA eschewed violence Saikia regretted that 24 persons including a senior journalist Kamal Prasad Saikia and a five-yr-old girl were killed in extremist violence since July 1.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 30, 1991
