The rebel United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has called for a 12-hour shutdown across Assam to protest the detention of two of their top leaders.

Shops, businesses and educational institutions remained closed. Most public and private transport kept off the roads.

Sashadhar Choudhury, ULFA’’s Foreign Secretary and Finance Secretary Chitraban Hazarika were sent to ten-days police remand by a court here on Saturday after Assam police claimed they had surrendered before Border Security Force personnel in Tripura.

In 2006, New Delhi had called off a truce with the ULFA when security forces realised that the rebels used the ceasefire to regroup.

The ULFA accuses New Delhi of plundering the region’’s mineral and forest resources, neglecting local economy and giving them back nothing in return.

India says the rebels have found safe havens in Bangladesh over the last two decades.