The proscribed Ulfa (Independent) on Saturday declared a unilateral ceasefire for three months because of the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the state.

This is the second time since 2006 that the outfit, formed in 1979 in pursuit of a sovereign Assam, has announced cessation of hostilities.

The outfit had then responded to the Centre’s decision to temporarily suspend all counter-insurgency operations to pave the way for talks. Arabinda Rajkhowa, whose faction has been engaged in peace talks since 2010, was the chairman of a united Ulfa then.

Saturday’s announcement by Ulfa (I) commander-in-chief Paresh Barua through a statement to the media, however, is unilateral and comes six days after chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to the outfit to come forward for peace talks because killings and abductions would not solve anything.

The state government is yet to formally respond to the unilateral ceasefire.

Barua’s statement said the outfit would suspend all operations for three months with immediate effect because of the difficulties faced by the general public owing to Covid-19. Till Friday, the number of active cases stood at 41,978 and over 1,000 people have died since April. Assam is under a near-lockdown to check the spread of the virus.

The ceasefire comes a day after two persons were killed in a grenade attack carried out in Tingrai Bazar in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district, prompting the chief minister to direct the police chief to deal sternly with the situation.

The Ulfa (I) chief had promptly denied its involvement in the attack.

The outfit has been active since December, first by kidnapping two employees of a private oil company from Arunachal Pradesh and then abducting three ONGC personnel from Sivasagar district.

An ONGC employee is yet to be rescued/freed.

Saturday’s announcement was made around the time Sarma was visiting Tingrai Bazar to meet the affected families.

Condemning the attack by yet-to-be-identified motorcycle-borne assailants, Sarma announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the two deceased — Sanjit Singh and Surajit Talukdar. Two more were also injured in the first terror attack to be carried out after Sarma took charge as the chief minister on Monday.