Guwahati: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has intimated to the Assam Government that it has received an extortion notice for Rs. 500 crore served in the name of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) even as the militant outfit on Monday rejected the "safe passage" offered by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to its cadres for visiting their family members.

Officials to brief Govt.

Highly placed sources told The Hindu on Monday night that the ONGC had intimated to the State Government that the company's corporate office at Nazira in upper Assam's Sivasagar district had received the ransom note through post couple of days ago.

The sources stated that two top officials of the oil major — offshore chairman A.K. Hazarika and security adviser T. N. Mishra — had come all the way from New Delhi to apprise the State Government of the development and request augmented security to the officials and employees.

The extortion notice was served in the name of the 28th Battalion of the ULFA, which is active in upper Assam.

The ULFA on Monday night stated in its fortnightly mouthpiece `Freedom' that the outfit expects "sincere interest and commitment from the Government of India for establishing lasting peace in Assam instead of any enticement of safe passage or general amnesty."

"The puppet Assam Government is trying to grasp political advantage by selling old wine in new bottles by sidetracking the core demand for the peace process."

`Rejected earlier too'

It said `safe passage' had been rejected earlier by the ULFA several times.

The outfit said it was very "unfortunate that they fail to realise from their previous bitter experiences of failure."

"The taste of sovereignty is much more delicious than the cakes made by our mothers and sisters at home," the rebel group said while rejecting Mr. Gogoi's offer of safe passage beginning on January 7 till January 21.

The mouthpiece also quoted the ULFA chief Paresh Barua describing the `safe passage' offer as "childish, immature and incompatible with the objective reality."

"Nobody with a sound mental health need any safe passage to his/her motherland," the ULFA chief said.

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