Pro-talks Ulfa leader Anup Chetia on Wednesday alleged that the Centre’s imposition of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was provoking a section of youths of Assam to take up arms.

Joining the anti-CAA agitation of the Nagarik Samaj at the Gauhati Club area here in the morning, he said: “We entered erstwhile Burma on May 21, 1983, to take up arms against the Centre after losing faith in Indian democracy. However, the collateral damages caused by the armed conflict were irreparable.”

Urging the youths to have faith in democracy, Chetia said: “I appeal to them (youths) to refrain from any thought of taking up arms. We must stay united and resist any move of the Centre democratically if there is anything against the interests of the people of Assam.” Chetia’s apprehension came in the wake of a recent media reports that amid the nationwide protests against the CAA, Bordumsa police arrested six youths who were secretly preparing to join the proscribed Ulfa (I).

Chetia asserted that certain forces were trying to divide the people of Assam so that the severity of the anti-CAA protests peters out. “However, the Centre’s conspiracy against the indigenous people will not work,” he added. “We have not instigated or provoked anyone to commit violence and crime in Assam since 2010. The government can no longer blame Ulfa for slow development of the state. However, we are astonished that there is no visible progress in the state. The closure of a number of PSUs in Assam depicts the hollowness of the development slogans of the BJP regime,” Chetia said.

“We must not compromise on the state’s interest. We must fight the CAA till it is revoked.”