Bodo rebels lay down arms
AFP, Guwahati
Tribal guerrillas lowered the rebel flag yesterday before Indian officials to symbolically end a seven-year insurgency that left some 2,000 people dead in the northeastern state of Assam. The 2,641 militants of the Bodo Liberation Tigers swapped their emblem for a white flag and laid down AK-47 rifles, rocket-launchers and explosives as part of a peace deal that will grant autonomy to the Bodo tribe. "We shall provide all help and support for rehabilitating the BLT militants who decided to join the mainstream," India's junior home minister Swami Chinmayanand told them. Tiger leader Hagrama Basumatry led the rebels in surrender in the ceremony in Kokrajhar district, 235km west of Assam's capital Guwahati. "From today onwards we shall start a new life that is full of challenges and responsibilities," Basumatry said. Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, who is also home minister, is expected to meet with the former rebels Sunday. At least six other ethnic separatist groups continue to fight in Assam, where more than 10,000 people have been killed in insurgency in the past two decades.
| 
