Don't visit northeast, don't speak against China: Ulfa to Dalai Lama

GUWAHATI: Two years after declaring its "friendship" with China, the banned anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa-I) has advised the Dalai Lama against visiting the Northeast and not to say anything against Beijing during his trip.

Ulfa-I leader Paresh Baruah is known to be hiding in China and had sought China's help to attain Assam's "sovereignty". Security forces believe Ulfa-I will try to create trouble in the run-up to the Dalai Lama's visit in the first week of April. All districts have been put on high alert.

In an open letter, the outfit's chairman Abhizeet "Asom" Barman — believed to be London-based physician Mukul Hazarika — warned the Tibetan spiritual leader that his plan to visit Tawang "despite China's objections" was "unwise" and "a cause of great concern to us". China had warned of "severe damage" to India-China ties when the Dalai Lama announced his visit to Tawang, which it claims is part of its territory.


A security official said they had details of his Baruah's exact hideout in Ruili town, in Dehong prefecture of southern China's Yunan province. "He is an expert at pitching his tent on foreign soil — first in Bhutan, then in Bangladesh and Myanmar, and now in China," the official said.

China had warned of "severe damage" to India-China ties when the Dalai Lama announced his visit to Tawang, which Beijing claims is part of its territory.

Should the Dalai Lama come to Assam, Barman wrote, "nothing against China will be uttered by you in private or in public because China has always been a friendly neighbour of ours. We won't tolerate India's view to be propagated from Assam's soil".

Barman suggested it was possible to turn the visit "into an opportunity" for "peace and something meaningful in your legacy". This opportunity, according to Barman, was acknowledging "India's occupation of Assam".

Barman wrote that "as a Tibetan politician", the Dalai Lama was no stranger to Assam and her history and requested him to "reciprocate the kindness and generosity bestowed upon you in 1959" —when he crossed the international bordervia Khenzimana Pass in Tawang before moving to Bomdi La, and then to Tezpur, Assam, from where he went to Dehradun.