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The proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (anti-talks faction) has called for a 12-hour statewide bandh on March 28 from 6 A.M protesting the proposed visit of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on that day to hit the campaign trail for Congress party in the poll-bound state where Assembly election is being held in two phased on April 4 and 11.
In a statement e-mailed to the media, the ULFA faction led by the fugitive 'commander-in-chief' Partesh Barua stated, "The prime minister who had promised to hold discussion on all the core issues in the interest of resolving the 'Assam-India' conflict, has betrayed the people of Assam by creating rift in the ULFA so that ' Indian colonial occupation could be continued in Assam.'
The ULFA group had earlier threatened to train the gun on leaders of the ruling Congress during the run up to polls to 'teach the party a lesson' for adopting a ' policy of engineering split in the militant group in order to facilitate talks with only a faction of it.'
However, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee stated that the prime minister was not coming to the state on March 28 and was likely to hit the campaign trail in the state only in the first week of April.
The ULFA faction has apparently issued the statement on the basis of news reports in the local media that media reports that Dr Singh who is a Rajya Sabha member of Parliament from Assam, is arriving in the state on March 28 for electioneering .
The ULFA faction had already triggered a blast at the State Congress headquarter here on March 14 last in which three Congress leaders were injured. Assam police later arrested five suspected ULFA men involved in the blast.
Security forces have intensified vigil in all the vulnerable areas in tyhe state to thwart the faction's design to disrupt elections in the state. There were reports about the ULFA faction striking a deal with the anti-talks faction of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland to create panic in the state during polls.