In the year 2006, a total of 86 people have been killed in militancy-related incidents in Assam, which includes 48 (55.82 per cent) civilians, 16 (18.60 per cent) security force (SF) personnel and at least 22 (25.58 per cent) militants.
Among the major incidents of terrorist violence in 2006 are:
January 20: Ten persons, including eight CISF personnel, are injured in a grenade attack by United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) at the entrance of Guwahati Refinery at Noonmati in Guwahati city.
May 9: Two SF personnel are killed in an ambush by the ULFA near the Borahibari railway station in Sibsagar district. Five persons, including the former State Transport Minister and senior Asom Gana Parishad leader Pradip Hazarika, are wounded in the attack.
June 8: ULFA triggers a series of grenade explosions, while targeting SF personnel, at various parts of the State leaving at least 25 persons wounded.
July 11: Two ULFA cadres, Pradip Rajbangshi and Mrinal Rajbangshi, are killed in an encounter with the SFs at Baglamari village in the Nalbari district.
On August 13, 2006, the Union Government suspended Army operations against the ULFA at a time when the militant group was engaged in a routine stepping up of violence ahead of Independence Day (August 15). Specifically, the announcement came hours after ULFA cadres shot dead a petty trader in the Joypur town of Dibrugarh district, hurled a grenade at the private residence of a senior Assam minister at Digboi in the Tinsukia district (the minister was present but there was no casualties), and made an abortive grenade attack on the Police in the western district town of Nalbari. In ten days, beginning August 4, 2006, the ULFA had launched several grenade or bomb attacks, killing a dozen people, including six SF personnel, five of them of the Assam Police, and injured up to 40 others.
The Union Government, subsequently, decided to extend the suspension of counter-insurgency operations against the ULFA by 15 days. A decision to this effect was taken at the meeting on August 23, 2006, between the Government and the ULFA-backed People’s Consultative Group (PCG) to decide modalities for direct negotiations with the outfit.
There have, however, been several roadblocks thus far, obstructing a possible face-to-face meeting between the ULFA and the Government of India:
New Delhi has asked ULFA to name its negotiating team. ULFA says the team cannot be named unless five of its top detained leaders are freed.
New Delhi has asked ULFA to give its consent for the talks in writing. ULFA responded by saying the Government must also state in writing that it would discuss the group’s key demand of ‘sovereignty’.
ULFA has demanded information on the whereabouts of 14 of its cadres ‘missing’ after the Bhutanese military assault in December 2003.
In 2006, the ULFA continued with its depredations, bombing markets, oil and gas pipelines and other installations. And it sent alarm bells ringing in the State's industry and security establishment by slapping an INR 5 billion (USD 112 million) extortion demand on the state-owned Indian oil major, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in January 2006, forcing the authorities to intensify vigil on oil and gas installations. Also on July 3, 2006, the Reserve Bank of India, the country's central bank, was served an extortion demand for INR 1.5 million by the ULFA.
On the other hand, the first round of talks between the Union Government and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) was held in New Delhi on May 27, 2006. Both sides agreed to extend their cease-fire agreement for another one year with effect from June 1. However, the group reportedly continues to carry on its extortion and violent activities in its areas of operations even as it indicates its willingness to resolve its problem through negotiations. The Centre and NDFB had entered into a one-year ceasefire agreement in May 2005.
On the political front, the election results of May 11, 2006, brought in new, though not unanticipated, power players into Assam’s Legislative Assembly and into the State’s Government; players, who were, not long ago, designated as terrorists, and had relentlessly waged war against the state and the democracy that has now catapulted them into the arguable position of ‘kingmakers’. The Hagrama Mohilary faction of the Bodo People’s Progressive Front (BBPF-H), with its leadership comprising principally of surrendered militants of the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), secured an overwhelming victory in the Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) areas, capturing 12 out of the 18 seats it contested in the 126-member Assam Assembly. The centrality of this victory is underlined by the fact that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s Congress Party has returned to power with drastically reduced margins, and just 53 seats in the Assembly, well below the halfway mark, making it dependent on BBPF-H’s support to form the Government.
Following is the sampling of the major incidents of violence in Assam during 2005.
January 11: Fourteen civilians, including a nine-year-old girl and four women, are injured when suspected ULFA terrorists trigger an explosion at the Marwaripatty area of Jorhat town.
February 23: Willingson Timung, the KLNLF ‘commander-in-chief’, is killed along with two other cadres by cadres of his own outfit inside the Langlakso forest area in Karbi Anglong district.
June 16: Four ULFA cadres, including three women, are killed in an encounter with the police at Doloni village in Dibrugarh district.
June 19: Four ULFA terrorists and one SF personnel are killed during two encounters in Nalbari district.
August 7: Four persons are killed and 12 others sustain injuries in an explosion detonated by the ULFA at a bus stand at Boko in Kamrup district.
September 14: Eight persons are killed and several others sustain injuries as suspected Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA) militants open indiscriminate fire at Thekerajan village in Karbi Anglong district.
October 2: Five members of a family are killed by unidentified militants at Hemari Terang village in Karbi Anglong district.
October 8: Suspected militants kill five Karbi villagers at Borsing Bey village near Diphu town in Karbi Anglong district.
October 9: Unidentified gunmen kill at least six persons at Bura Fanchu and Longsing Engti villages in Karbi Anglong district.
October 21: Suspected DHD militants kill nine UPDS cadres at Tamulbari under Diphu police station in Karbi Anglong district.
December 2: Four civilians, including a two-month-old infant, are killed by DHD militants at Sirkangnep village in Karbi Anglong district.
It was on September 7, 2005, that the ULFA announced the setting of the People's Consultative Group (PCG), a hand-picked 11-member team comprising journalists, rights activists, lawyers and academics. The group is led by writer Indira Goswami, who has been acting as the mediator between the outfit and the Government in New Delhi for some time now. Rebati Phukan, a former football player from the State, supplements Goswami's efforts. The PCG's mandate was to clear the roadblocks and prepare the grounds for direct talks between the ULFA and the GoI. The PCG has held three rounds of talks with the federal authorities in New Delhi so far, the first meeting on October 26, 2005, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The second PCG-Government meeting was held on February 7, 2006, and the last on June 22, 2006. However, the constitution of the PCG has had little impact on the continuing violence in the State.
During 2005, the ULFA reportedly reorganised its units in its traditional strongholds, forming new 'battalions', and moving into hitherto unexplored territories, both within Assam and in adjoining States. On April 20, 2005, the Police demolished a well-equipped camp of ULFA's newly-formed '27th battalion' in Karbi Anglong district, an area where the organisation's traditional influence has been low. The camp was established in the first week of April 2005 and was led by a middle level cadre, Dandi Bora. On April 21, 2005, six ULFA leaders, including a woman 'sergeant major', were arrested by the Army at Sesupani in Tinsukia District as they descended into Assam from their Changlang camp in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh. Movements of ULFA cadres drawn from its '28th battalion' have been noticed in the Jonai area of upper Assam's Dhemaji District and also in the Poba reserve forest area spread over a 100 square kilometers along the borders with Arunachal Pradesh. Each of these is a territory that has remained untouched by the group's terror and extortion in the past. Meanwhile, ULFA cadres continue to use the neighbouring State of Meghalaya's Garo Hills area for transit and as an arms dump. On May 14, Police recovered two universal machine guns, three magazines and 60 rounds from an ULFA hideout at Masuk in the West Garo Hills district.
There was a series of macabre killings spanning almost a month (October 2005) in southern Assam’s Karbi Anglong District. An analysis of official statistics relating to the violence revealed unexpected dimensions of the violence, suggesting that a particular community – surprisingly the majority in the District – bore the brunt of the merciless raids, suggesting that this was not, as has been widely projected, an ‘ethnic war’ that has been witnessed. Rather, the attacks had the character of an organized expansionist campaign by a particular ethnic militia, capitalising on absence of pressure from counter-insurgency forces as a result of the prevailing ceasefire with the authorities. As on October 29, 2005, a total of 88 people were officially reported killed, of whom 76 belonged to the majority Karbi ethnic group. The others killed include nine Dimasas, one Bodo, one Nepali and one Assamese.
On its part, the Government has admitted the role of local insurgent groups in the violence. Two rebel groups operate in the District: the United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), pushing for ‘self-rule’ for the Karbis; and the Dima Halim Daogah (DHD), primarily based in the neighbouring North Cachar Hills District, fighting for a separate Dimaraji State for the Dimasas. Incidentally, both UPDS and DHD had entered into a cease-fire with the Government – the DHD truce came about on January 1, 2003, and the UPDS cease-fire on May 23, 2002. Obviously, the UPDS cannot be behind the slaughter of the Karbis. The slaughter of the Karbis is believed to be the work of the DHD and its supporters or some other shadowy Dimasa forces. Some of the major incidents of violence that broke out in the Karbi Anglong district in October 2005 are:
October 2: Five members of a family are killed by unidentified militants at Hemari Terang village under Diphu police station.
October 9: Six persons from the Bura Fanchu and Longsing Engti villages are killed and hundreds of houses are set ablaze by unidentified terrorists in separate incidents under Diphu and Bokajan police stations.
October 10: Six Dimasa civilians are killed at Kheroni village. Nearly 60 houses also set ablaze by the miscreants.
October 17: Suspected Dimasa militants waylay two passenger buses traveling from Zirikinding at Charchim under Kheroni police station and kill 23 persons, including nine women, belonging to the Karbi tribe.
October 18: Six persons are killed at Doyangmukh area under Diphu police station.
October 21: Suspected DHD militants kill nine UPDS cadres at Tamulbari under Diphu police station.
The high hopes of the Bodos following the formation of the BTC were quickly shattered when former BLT leaders fell out with the former leaders of the All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU) in their bid to control Bodo politics. The nascent BBPF, formed at Kokrajhar on April 12, 2005, at the behest of the ABSU and former BLT militants, underwent a sudden split on the eve of the Council elections held in May 2005. The divide in the BPPF came mainly as a result of Hagrama Mohilary’s support to some former militant comrades who had contested the Council elections as independent candidates against official candidates of the BBPF. Manoj Kumar Brahma, one of Hagrama Mahilary’s close associates, for instance, was pitted against Rabiram Narzary, the founding president of the BPPF, at Banargaon. Nevertheless, on June 2, 2005, an 11-member Executive Council headed by Hagrama Mahilary was sworn in at Kokrajhar, to run the 46-member BTC. Post-poll violence continued to rock the Bodo heartland of Assam with two rival BPPF factions engaged in violent clashes – attacking villages, torching houses and indulging in vandalism.
The split in the BPPF and subsequent clashes between the supporters of the two factions have been a boon for the NDFB, which has consolidated its lost position among the Bodos. Its cease-fire with the Government has also raised hopes that the outfit might be able to secure a better deal than the present BTC – though it is difficult to see what more the Government could offer. When the NDFB signed the cease-fire agreement with the Union and State Governments on May 25, 2005, there was jubilation within a large section of the Bodo community. However, the proposed negotiations are expected to be difficult, since the outfit is yet to give up its original demand for a sovereign state of Bodoland.
With the BPPF having secured dominance in the BTC and now gaining a stranglehold in the Governing coalition at Guwahati, its power in Bodo politics will be difficult to challenge for the next five years. Other political formations will, consequently, be increasingly tempted to violence to undermine this influence, even as the Government will have little to offer the surviving Bodo militant group, the NDFB, to secure its return to democratic politics.
Assam was gripped by both euphoria and fear after the country's Supreme Court, on July 12, 2005, struck down as unconstitutional an immigration law that was in force only in the State. While certain groups welcomed the apex court's verdict thinking it would now be easy to detect and throw out the 'hordes' of illegal Bangladeshi migrants, others fear the exit of the special piece of legislation could lead to genuine citizens belonging to the minority communities being victimized or harassed in the name of detecting Bangladeshi aliens.
The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) (IMDT) Act, a federal legislation, was introduced in Assam on October 15, 1983, at the height of the 'anti-foreigner' (anti-Bangladeshi migrants) uprising spearheaded by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU). With the introduction of the IMDT Act, Assam became the only State in India where the Foreigners Act was not applicable.
Over the past two decades, just about 1,500 'illegal Bangladeshis' have been expelled, according to official records. Even for this number, however, there is no evidence that Bangladesh has officially accepted their return.
It was in 1998 that the All India Lawyers' Forum for Civil Liberties filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre and the State Governments in Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Mizoram, Tripura and Delhi to deport all Bangladeshis living illegally in India. Then, in 2000, former All Assam Students Union (AASU) president, and currently member of the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) from the AGP, Sarbananda Sonowal, moved a PIL seeking the quashing of the Act itself. After a five-year legal battle, the Supreme Court's verdict came on July 12, 2005. The Court's observations were interpreted by the AASU, AGP and the BJP as a vindication of their stand.
Significantly, however, the Supreme Court’s order said: "All the tribunals and appellate tribunals under IMDT Act shall cease to function. All cases pending before (these) tribunals shall stand transferred to Foreigners (Tribunal) Order and be decided under Foreigners Act." The ruling Congress in Assam found this a great relief. "The positive aspect of the Supreme Court verdict is that it did not leave detection of foreigners to police and directed constitution of tribunals under the Foreigners Act," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was quoted as saying. He said the Congress party was all along demanding that the foreigners should be detected through a judicial process and that the matter should not just be left to the police machinery. So, it seems clear that the exercise of detecting and throwing out illegal migrants is not going to see results overnight even under the new arrangement.