On August 7, 2001, the State Government intitiated a week long campaign aimed at 'mobilising public opinion against all forms of insurgent violence and to create a congenial situation to enable the separatists to give up insurgency and return to the mainstream.' This campaign was started in the wake of unabated insurgency related violence that claimed a total of 606 lives in the year 2001. A change of guard in the State political set up not withstanding, terrorist outfits such as the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and United People's Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) continue to terrorize the common populace. The silver lining, however, remains in the fact that insurgency has now been pushed to only a few pockets in the State.
The year 2001 began with a ray hope for peace in the insurgency-affected State of Assam. Within the first week, the Chief of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Paresh Baruah called up several newspapers’ offices, expressing his desire for a round of ‘meaningful and scientific dialogue’ with the Indian government. Shortly, thereafter, the Chairman of the outfit, Arabinda Rajkhowa, reportedly, spoke in similar terms, asking for a ‘peace proposal’ as a ‘birthday gift’. However, the response of the Indian government was cautious even though the State government pleaded that a peace deal with the outfit should be finalized.
In a disturbing development, however, on January 2, 2001, ULFA terrorists killed a prominent surrendered ULFA (SULFA) leader, Abinash Bordoloi and two of his associates. The rivalry between the ULFA and its surrendered brethren, and the alleged patronage provided by the State government to the latter, left some question marks over the wisdom of the State government’s policy on former terrorists and their various activities in the State, including their alleged use in counter-terrorism operations.
The year 2000 was dominated by the continuation of terrorism-related violence in Assam. In all 366 civilians lost their lives in 2000, in comparison to 214 civilians in 1999. A total of 65 security force personnel were killed as against 77 in the previous year. In addition, the year saw the death of as many as 327 terrorists belonging to different outfits compared to 212 in 1999.
Of the 43 insurgent groups operating in the State, the ULFA occupied the centre stage as a result of a wide range of subversive activities. The first day of the year 2000 saw the ULFA blowing up the Lakwa-Moran pipeline of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) at Disangpani in the Sibasagar district. This was followed by the blowing up of the Duliajan-Barauni crude oil pipeline at Numaligarh in Golaghat district in the month of January. In the same month, an attempt was also made to blow up the pipeline between Halmari and Bahdari in Dibrugarh district.
In addition to these acts of sabotage, the ULFA continued its campaign of attacks on political leaders. The State Forest and PWD minister, Nagen Sarma, was assassinated in Nalbari on February 27, 2000, and a day later, an attempt was made on the life of the State Veterinary Minister Hiranya Konwar, near Moran in Sibasagar district. Konwar, however, escaped unhurt.
There was a lull in major terrorist activities by the ULFA towards the middle of the year. There was, however a shift of strategy towards the year end, this time targeting people from the Hindi-speaking non-Assamese, communities. On October 23, 2000, 15 persons were killed by suspected ULFA terrorists in two separate incidents in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts. On October 27, 2000, ULFA terrorists massacred nine persons and injured 12 in Nalbari district. On November 16, 2000, 10 members of a non-Assamese community were killed in Sibsagar district at a time when a Parliamentary team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was on tour to monitor the law and order situation in the State. 22 non-Assamese, including eight Bihari truck drivers were killed in three separate massacres in Bongaigaon district on November 30. On December 7, in the most tragic of killings, 28 Hindi-speaking petty traders and farm workers from Bihar were killed by suspected ULFA terrorists near Sadiya.
Ramen Nath, a deputy of ULFA’s Central Secretariat in Bhutan, later claimed that Raju Baruah, ‘commander’ of the outfit, masterminded these massacres, and that these were executed by the ‘Enigma Unit’ of the ULFA. Certain newspapers reported Paresh Baruah, the ULFA chief, as having complimented Raju Baruah for the successful execution of the design.
While speculations and analyses continued to dominate newspaper headlines to figure out the motive behind these series of massacres, in a dramatic reversal of fortunes, houses of ULFA leaders and their relatives were attacked by unidentified miscreants. On December 6, 2000, Paresh Baruah’s house in Dhubri district was attacked. Two days later, Deepak Choudhury, brother of Sasha Choudhury, 'foreign secretary' of ULFA, was killed by unidentified assailants in Nalbari district.
ULFA suffered a major setback on May 27, 2000, when its publicity coordinator, Swadhinata Phukan alias Kabi Ranjan Saikia, was killed in an encounter in Jorhat. The surrender of a large number of ULFA cadres throughout the year added to the ULFA leadership’s problems. With at least five mass surrenders in the year, the ULFA suffered enormously in terms of manpower. On April 4, 2000, 436 ULFA cadres surrendered at Rong-Ghar ground at Sibasagar district. On August 14, 2000, another 242 cadres surrendered at Guwahati. On September 16, 2000, 200 ULFA terrorists operating in central Assam’s Nagaon and Morigaon districts surrendered with their ‘commander’ Pranab Bora alias Swapnil Deka Raja. On December 6, 2000, 160 ULFA cadres surrendered at Dispur. In all, 1526 cadres from this militant grouping surrendered in the year 2000. In comparison, the number of ULFA surrenders in 1998 and 1999 were 184 and 724 respectively.
An event that attracted attention in the month of December was the claim by the Assam Rifles regarding the death of Raju Baruah and injury to Paresh Baruah, in an internecine clash in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. This later proved to be a non-event, when Paresh Baruah himself called up news channels to contradict the reports and reiterate his existence. The original source of the disinformation is yet to be identified.
Among other terrorist outfits, National Democratic front of Bodoland (NDFB), Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), Dima Halim Daogah (DHD), and Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA) remained active. The NDFB continued to control the Bodo-areas of the State and the UPDS dominated the Karbi-Anglong and North Cachar districts.
On August 19, 2000, Beneshawar Brahma, President of the Bodo Sahitya Shaba was killed by suspected terrorists of the NDFB at Guwahati. On November 25, 2000, eight woodcutters were killed by NDFB terrorists in the Lung Sung forest reserve. The NDFB appears to have joined ULFA in the attacks on the people from Hindi-speaking communities when, on November 8, 2000, eight civilians, including seven of a non-Assamese community, were killed by suspected NDFB terrorists in Barpeta district. In a similar act, on December 21, 2000, NDFB terrorists killed 10 Bhutanese nationals and one Nepali speaking person on the Namdang Road in Barpeta district.
The UPDS also joined the campaign against Hindi-speaking settlers in the Karbi Anglong district, when on December 28, 2000, its cadres killed eight persons.
In all, more than a hundred people have perished in this series of violent incidents in the State.
The BLT, however, continued to engage in a dialogue process with the government and more or less remained committed to a cease-fire. Union Home Minister L.K. Advani had, on March 15, 2000, made an announcement in Parliament declaring the suspension of operations against the BLT by the Army, paramilitary forces and the Assam police. The ground rules for the cease-fire, agreed to by both the sides are:
BLT will abjure violence and not engage in unlawful activities such as killings, injuries, and kidnappings; and
BLT will abide by the Constitution and laws of the land.
The first round of tripartite talks involving the Governments of India, the Assam Government and the BLT took place in the month of May. It was followed by a series of talks. In September, suspension of operations by security forces against the BLT in Assam was further extended for one year following an agreement between the Central government, the Assam Government and the BLT. According to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the peace talks were progressing satisfactorily and a permanent solution to the problem could be expected in the near future.
Fratricidal clashes between terrorist groups, notably between the NDFB and the BLT, also continued. On December 12, 2000, 11 BLT terrorists were killed in an internecine clash with NDFB terrorists in the Barpeta district. Similarly, on December 21, 2000, five BLT cadres were killed by NDFB terrorists in Nalbari district. The NDFB was declared an unlawful association under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 by the Central government on December 21, 2000.
Against the backdrop of all these insurgent activities, the counter terrorism operations continued with new strategies and with increased manpower, especially after the renewed upsurge of violence by ULFA. As a result of recent additions, the strength of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) deployed in the 18 districts of the State has gone up from 123 companies to 141. The Unified Command Structure, in charge of the counter insurgency operations, decided to increase its visible presence in the trouble-torn areas of the State on December 4, 2000. The CRPF also claimed to have achieved major successes in its operations by adopting the Special Operations Group (SOG) system. Under the system, the State police force, Army and the CRPF functioned as a composite group, resulting in more firepower and quicker reaction time. The local intelligence inputs, detention of terrorists and related activities were handled by the State police force, while crack commando units of the CRPF provided the firepower. The Unified Command, in charge of the counter-insurgency operations, accounted for the death of 863 ULFA cadres over the past three years. During the same period, 2400 weapons were seized and over Rs.10 million in cash was recovered from ULFA terrorists.
--Security Forces Personnel
--Terrorists
--Civilians
The political reactions to the terrorist onslaught varied from anguish to a state of confusion. On November 27, 2000, the Chief Minister urged the Central government to adopt a 'Kashmir type method' to tackle insurgency in Assam. In a similar tone, on December 11, 2000, the Governor hinted at the formation of an 'armed resistance force' comprising people from all the communities to deal with the spate of violence in the State. The Governor had earlier spoken of a ‘safe passage’ offer to the terrorists during the Bihu festival, but subsequently, on December 13, 2000, revised his position in view of the escalating violence, and linked his offer to the restoration of ‘pre-October normalcy’ in the State.
Earlier, in the month of April, the Chief Minister had presented a statement in the State Assembly regarding the activities of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. However, on December 9, 2000, the Indian Defence Minister categorically ruled out any foreign hand in the spate of massacres that occurred in the last months of the year. Nevertheless, the ISI role in aiding and abetting the forces of insurgency remained a fact of life in the State. The ISI reportedly launched a 3-pronged attack by training and supplying arms to militant groups, destabilising communal harmony in the State, and launching disruptive activities. Outfits like the MULTA and Muslim Liberation Army (MLA) continued to wreak havoc at the behest of the ISI in the districts of Dhubri, Nagaon, Kamrup and Kokrajhar. On August 29, 2000, a gun factory run by MULTA at Nandini village in Gossaigaon was raided. In March, 2000, police had arrested 101 MULTA activists. Reports in the month of October suggested that the ULFA and the MULTA had decided to operate in tandem in certain areas along the Assam-Bangladesh border. A report prepared by the State’s security agencies noted that the ISI had infiltrated the rank and file of the ULFA in order to convert the terrorist outfit into a ‘protection force’ for a large number of infiltrators who pose a substantial threat to India’s security.
The killing of 10 Bhutanese traders by Bodo Liberation Tigers in separate incidents in lower Assam’s Barpeta district on December 21, 2000 added a completely new dimension to the violence in the State. The Bhutan government came out with an unambiguous attack on the outfit and is in the process of persuading both the ULFA and the NDFB to stop operating from its territory. Apart from Bhutan and Bangladesh, the other country allegedly involved in some form of assistance to the outfits is China. On December 13, 2000, the Minister of State for Home Affairs informed Parliament that reports of the ULFA procuring arms from the Chinese Army were confirmed.
Evidently, there has been no breakthrough with regarding to the problem in Assam through the year 2000. Peace talks with the ULFA have remained a non-starter, and the events towards the end of the year established ULFA’s intentions of continuing on the path of confrontation and terrorist violence. Unless this outfit is comprehensively defeated, clearly, the year 2001 can be expected to be no different.