The Indian army will suspend counter-insurgency operations against separatist rebels in the troubled northeastern state of Assam to help peace moves, a senior state official said on Sunday, according to Reuters. Talks between the government and representatives of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to end a 26-year-old insurgency which has killed around 15,000 people, began in October last year but have not yielded any major breakthrough. A senior Assam state official said the move was a goodwill gesture by the federal government. "For a few days counter insurgency offensive operations have been suspended. It is not a ceasefire," S.K. Kabilan, Assam's chief secretary, told Reuters by phone. There was no immediate comment from the ULFA, but Kabilan said the rebels were in touch with officials in New Delhi. Rebel representatives, including human rights workers, journalists and lawyers, met Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil and other senior security officials in June. It was the third meeting between the two sides and was expected to pave the way for direct talks between New Delhi and the armed guerrillas, aimed at negotiating a ceasefire. The ULFA, which has has been fighting a war of secession in oil, tea and timber-rich Assam since 1979, is thought to be demanding the release of jailed senior rebels before peace talks can begin in earnest. It accuses New Delhi of neglecting the state and taking away its natural resources. Indian army officials said the gesture may help peace efforts in the region. "There was never a ceasefire in Assam and we were continuing our job to flush them out, but the ULFA leaders were always against the offensive while they were talking across the table," a top army official told Reuters in Kolkata. The largely hilly region, linked to the rest of India by a tiny strip of land just 32 km (20 miles) wide, is home to seven of India's 29 states and is surrounded by China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan. It is home to over 200 ethnic and tribal communities and two dozen rebel groups, of which nine have entered peace talks with the government and are observing ceasefires. Several lives are lost each week to militant violence. -SPA
