India separatist leader surrenders to authorities

Security officials said today that the commander of a powerful rebel movement in India’s remote northeast has surrendered with a top deputy.

Ravi Gandhi, a spokesman for India’s Border Security Force, says Arabinda Rajkhowa, the chairman of the United Liberation Front of Asom, surrendered to authorities today on the Bangladesh border.

He was with the group’s deputy military chief, a bodyguard, and seven family members.

ULFA has fought for an independent homeland for ethnic Assamese people in India’s northeast for the past two decades.

At least 10,000 people, most civilians, have died in Assam state because of fighting between government forces and ULFA rebels, as well as with another separatist group, the National Democratic Front of Boroland.