Talks with Centre positive: Rajkhowa

Guwahati: ULFA 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa on Tuesday said that the first round of talks with the Centre was "very positive" and it was "quite satisfied" with the response of the government.

"We had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last evening at his residence in Delhi and we are happy with his approach towards resolving Assam's problems," Rajkhowa told reporters here after his arrival from the national capital.

"The prime minister has assured us of an honourable and acceptable solution to the problems of Assam and our talks with him were very cordial," he said.

"The prime minister also appreciated our initiative to come forward for peace talks and our resolve to solve the problem through dialogue," he said.

The ULFA was considering to come forward for talks after receiving the prime minister's letter dated May 25, 2005 where he had wrote about holding talks on all issues, Rajkhowa pointed out.

The ULFA leadership had also met Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on February 10 prior to their detailed talks with Union Home Secretary G K Pillai and both the consultations were "very positive".

Besides Rajkhowa, the other leaders of the group who attended the meetings in New Delhi were 'vice chairman' Pradip Gogoi, 'political advisor' Bhimakanta Buragohain, 'foreign secretary' Sasha Choudhury, 'finance secretary' Chitrabon Hazarika, 'cultural secretary' Pranati Deka, 'publicity secretary' Mithinga Daimary and 'deputy commander-in-chief' Raju Barua.

Followers