Free passage to insurgents during Bihu festival: Tarun Gogoi

Free passage would be given to all insurgent outfits during the upcoming Bhogali Bihu festival, while the government is keen to hold peace talks with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) at the earliest, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said today.

"As a goodwill gesture the militants would be allowed to move about freely to celebrate Bihu with their family and friends," Gogoi said on the sidelines of a meeting in Guwahati.

The government is also eager to hold talks with the ULFA as soon as possible even without the presence of the outfit's elusive 'commander-in-chief' Paresh Baruah, for whom the doors were always open to take part in the parleys, he said.

Gogoi dismissed as "baseless" the opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leader and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's assertion yesterday that peace talks with the ULFA would be futile without the participation of Paresh Baruah.