New Delhi: Rebati Phukan, former footballer, businessman and a member of the People’s Consultative Group (PCG) formed by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in 2005 to mediate between the separatist outfit and the Centre, went missing from Guwahati on April 22.The news has created a sensation in Assam considering he was seen close to ULFA (independent) chief and his childhood friend Paresh Barua. Barua has been opposed to the ongoing talks between the Centre and the pro-talks faction led by former ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa as it has kept out a discussion on the outfit’s core demand of ‘sovereignty’ for Assam. As per local media reports quoting police sources, Phukan was staying alone at home, a rented accommodation, at Ambikagiri Nagar, and as per his daily routine, had gone for his morning walk on April 22 but didn’t return home. He was last seen by an auto-rickshaw driver near the Assam State Zoo.His son, Kaushik Phukan, a tea planter in upper Assam, rushed to Guwahati on informed about it. He told reporters that his father could have become “a victim” for his efforts to bring Barua to the negotiation table.“My father has been trying to facilitate talks between ULFA and the government for a long time. He had visited Bangladesh, China and Myanmar between 2007 and 2015 and met Barua towards this end. For the past three months, he had been working on the clauses of a document which would have been acceptable to the ULFA (I) leader to initiate negotiations,” he said. This past April 26, in a press meet, director general of police Mukesh Sahay told reporters that the police got to know about it three days later. He said the chief minister had taken a strong note of the incident and had asked him to immediately conduct an inquiry to trace Phukan. Sahay said he had formed a special team under the leadership of Guwahati Police Commissioner Hiren Chandra Nath for the purpose. “We have alerted the railways, airports, and all other possible places to find him. He returned from visiting his daughter in Pune on April 19. For the last few months, he was not keeping well. Some time ago, he had a surgery too. So, we are tracking all hospitals as well. We hope to get a breakthrough soon,” DGP Sahay told reporters. Meanwhile, talking on the phone from an unknown destination, Barua told the Assamese news channel Pratidin Time that it could be the handiwork of some pro-talks leaders who were opposed to him joining the talks. He said if Phukan had indeed worked out a process through which the Government of India would discuss peace with ULFA (I) including the contentious subject of ‘sovereignty of Assam’, “it would be easy to see who would be affected by it”.Pro-talks leader Rajkhowa told reporters, “I have not been able to sleep since the news came. It is a mystery. I request his family to be patient.” Another leader Anup Chetia said, “Fingers have been pointed at pro-talks leaders but I feel the Police department should unfold the mystery.” A pro-talks leader, who didn’t want to be named, told The Wire, “The talks are in final stages. Everything is decided. We are just waiting for the final National Register of Citizens to be declared and also the Supreme Court’s order on the petitions around Assam Accord. At this juncture, I don’t think Barua would really be interested in joining the talks.”Besides Phukan, the People’s Consultative Group had 10 members led by Gnanpith awarded Assamese writer late Mamoni Raisom Goswami. Two rounds of talks took place between the Group and the Centre in 2005. The third round scheduled for mid-2006 failed to take off as the ULFA insisted on discussing Assam’s ‘sovereignty’. In 2009, Rajkhowa was arrested in Bangladesh and brought to India, followed by Anup Chetia who was kept in a jail in that country for nearly two decades. These leaders, joined by a few others, began peace negotiations with the Centre. The People’s Consultative Group was dissolved in February 2011 by the ULFA leaders led by Rajkhowa, declaring it unconstitutional as the outfit’s constitution nowhere allowed such a body.
