United Liberation Front of Barak Valley (ULFBV) militants are all set to surrender with arms at a ceremony in south Assam’s Hailakandi district before Independence Day.

Hailakandi superintendent of police Bibekanda Das told that the surrender would be treated as “a stepping stone” towards possible successful conclusion of the peace dialogue between the Assam government and the outfit’s supremo Pachau Ram Reang.

He said the current strength of the outfit is estimated at nearly 300.

Das has been spearheading the efforts to usher in peace and normality in the insurgency-rocked district.

He said the outfit had participated in three rounds of preliminary discussions with the state government mediator Khagen Sharma, the IGP (intelligence) in Guwahati in June, on bringing about peace in the Katlicherra area on the Assam-Mizoram border.The outfit presented a six-point charter of demands to the state government on June 6.

Though the SP did not divulge the contents of this package, intelligence sources said the demands include rehabilitation of cadres, compensation for building houses, jobs for some of the surrenderees in the state police and financial help for the development of the tribal habitats in the south Assam districts. The outfit specialised in raids on government agencies, extortion and abductions.

It once had a tie-up with the Dima Halam Daogah (Dilip).

The group declared a ceasefire for three months at their strongholds in the south Assam districts on June 7.

The formal peace dialogues between the government mediators and the outfit’s delegation are, however, yet to get off the ground, but it is expected that the talks would be under way either in Guwahati or Shillong soon.

Das said the outfit had begun to assemble all its members.

He added that the activists had nearly 100 arms including some AK-47 and 56 varieties of lethal automatic assault rifles.