New Delhi: United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants may have demanded that the state be free of all non-Assamese migrant workers, but 95 per cent of the people in nine districts of Assam have rejected the banned outfit's demand.
The wish of the majority of the people was revealed in a referendum conducted by a forum of kin of the militants.
The referendum by Assam Public Works (APW), a body formed by relatives of ULFA members was conducted in nine of the state's 27 districts.
It indicated that a majority of people were not in favour of the group's demand for a sovereign Assam.
APW's secretary general Abhijeet Sarma released the findings at a meeting held in Guwahati on Sunday.
Sarma said only about five per cent of the people surveyed supported the ULFA's demand.
ULFA's insistence on making sovereignty the core issue for any talks with the government is one of the reasons that has stalled the peace process in Assam.
The Centre has rejected the demand.
News agency PTI quoted Sarma as saying that the study was conducted in the districts of Bongaigaon, Goalpara, Guwahati (metro), Dhubri, Darrang, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Nalbari during the first phase.
He added that other districts will be covered in the second phase to be launched soon.
More than 1,800 members of APW fanned out across the nine districts with questionnaires that were distributed for people to give their views.
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