Tinsukia: Assam minister Biswajit Daimary has praised the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), crediting the Moran-Matak communities with providing the outfit’s core leadership and asserting that it had helped protect Assam over the past five decades.
Daimary made the remarks while addressing a gathering at the central foundation day celebration of the Matak Yuva Chhatra Sanmilan at Dirak Nawajyoti village in Kakopathar, near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border in Tinsukia district. He was also presented with the Bengmara Samanway Award at the event.
Highlighting the Moran-Matak community’s contribution to ULFA, Daimary said, “Because of the ULFA, no one has been able to lay a hand on Assam.”
He said members of the two communities had played a significant role in shaping the organisation’s leadership. “The people who provided ULFA with its core leadership were from the Moran-Matak communities,” he said.
Referring to ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, Daimary said, “Paresh Baruah belongs to the Matak community.”
The minister also suggested that Assam’s trajectory over the past 50 years could have been different without the community’s involvement.
“Only God knows what the condition of Assam would have been over the past 50 years had the Moran-Matak people not been there,” he said.
Describing ULFA as a resilient organisation, Daimary added, “ULFA is a force that others have been unable to shake for the past 50 years.”
The remarks came during the community gathering at which Daimary was honoured for his longstanding association with the Moran-Matak community.