Ghose is dead
sanjoy ghose died in a fall from a cliff somewhere in Arunachal Pradesh on August 4th, says a statement issued by the United Liberation Front of Asom ( ulfa ). The ngo activist had been abducted by members of the separatist movement on July 4 from Majuli, the riverine island in the Brahmaputra.
Issued on August 5 by Mithinga Daimary, central publicity secretary of the outfit, the release said Ghose, the general secretary of the Association of Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development in the North East ( avardne ), was in the process of being released when his death occurred. The message offers profuse apologies to the Ghose family. The exact spot from where Ghose fell was not specified.
In the statement issued in Assamese, the outfit stated: "We had taken the responsibility for Ghose's release. Apurba Goswami was assigned to work out the modalities for his movement from the hills to the plains. But Apurba was killed in an army encounter and documents related to the release of Ghose were confiscated by the army from him.
"On the basis of the documents, the army started progressing towards the hills where Ghose was being kept. Seeing the army closing in on us, we retreated to a higher location. This is when Ghose tried to escape, slipped and fell from a cliff. He succumbed to his injuries. We convey condolences to his wife and family and beg their forgiveness."
Intelligence personnel of the army's 4 Corps had intercepted a radio message from a senior ulfa activist on August 4th that said Ghose died after falling from a cliff in Arunachal Pradesh. The army, however, firmly denies any involvement in Ghose's killing. R K Sawhney, general officer commanding-in-charge of the 4 Corps at Tezpur, described ulfa's version as a "blatant lie".
If Ghose had died earlier, as conflicting reports in the media had earlier suggested, it shows ulfa in a very poor light. It would mean that the separatist outfit was giving false statements all along in the face of adverse public opinion and had finally tried to shift the blame to the army with a false story. Official sources said it would be difficult to trust the outfit in future negotiations.
Meanwhile, all sections of society in Assam have expressed deep shock at the reports about Ghose's death. Conveying his condolences to his family, the chief minister of the state, Prafulla Mahanta said it is the moral responsibility of the ulfa to hand over the body of the deceased to his family members soon. He said a commissioner-level inquiry would be constituted by the state government to ascertain the details of the tragedy.