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birth of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
in 1979 marked the beginning of insurgency in Assam.
Operating in the background of the popular Assam agitation
(led by the All Assam Students’ Union or AASU
against illegal influx from Bangladesh), the outfit’s
objective was to “liberate Assam through armed
national liberation struggle from the clutches of the
illegal occupation of India” and to “establish
a sovereign independent Assam”. While the Assam
agitation was primarily a movement against the illegal
Bangladeshi migrants in the State, the ULFA too raised
similar concerns, which contributed to its popularity
and acceptability among the common populace. The AASU-led
agitation ended with the signing of the Assam Accord
in 1985 and subsequently the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP)—the
regional political party that was formed by the AASU
leadership who were a signatory to the Assam Accord—won
the elections to form the government in Assam.
Subsequent years witnessed ULFA’s influence in
the State reaching new heights. The outfit’s military
prowess is believed to have increased as a result of
its ties with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah
(NSCN-IM), which aided it in terms of securing arms
and providing training to its cadres. The breakdown
of governance in Assam led to the declaration of President’s
Rule in the State and two army operations: Operation
Bajrang (between November 27, 1990 and June 10, 1991)
and Operation Rhino (between September 15, 1991 and
January 13, 1992). The military offensices targeted
the outfit and its facilities within Assam forcing its
leadership to seek refuge in Bangladesh. ULFA was subsequently
patronised by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI)
of Pakistan and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence
(DGFI) of Bangladesh. The outfit also maintained camps
in Bhutan till December 2003, when a Bhutanese military
operation dislodged it from those camps. As result of
these operations, about 650 militants, including a majority
of ULFA cadres were neutralized. ULFA, however, has
managed to survive and continues to launch periodic
strikes in Assam, mostly from its facilities in the
Sagaing division in Myanmar. In 2009, of course, there
have been reports of the ULFA setting up a base in China’s
Yunnan province, established by the group’s military
chief Paresh Baruah.
In addition to the ULFA insurgency, the largest plains
tribes in the State, the Bodos, in the 1980s initiated
a violent movement on issues such as dispossession of
their tribal lands by Bengali and Assamese settlers,
as well as apathy shown to the Bodo language and culture
by the mainstream Assamese. In 1986, the National Democratic
Front of Bodoland (NDFB) emerged with an avowed objective
of an independent Bodo country. Parallely, the All Bodo
Students’ Union (ABSU) too launched a movement
till February 1993 when the Bodo Accord was signed between
the Bodo Volunteer Force (BVF) and the Union government.
However, instead of bringing peace to the troubled area,
a section of the BVF rejected the Accord and formed
the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) in 1996. The BLT engaged
in several violent acts, especially in the districts
of western and northern Assam, particularly the Bodo
heartland of Kokrajhar. Such activities of the BLT were
brought to an end with the cease-fire agreement of March
29, 2000. Negotiations between the government and the
militant outfit culminated in the creation of the Bodoland
Territorial Council (BTC) in December 2003. The NDFB
in October 2004 announced a unilateral ceasefire. A
formal ceasefire agreement between NDFB and the Government
was signed on 25 May 2005.
Apart from ULFA and the Bodo insurgency, Assam has
been affected by insurgent movements initiated by Karbi
and Dimasa tribes, the Adivasis and also the Islamists.
Karbi and Dimasas have demanded autonomy for their homelands
whereas the Adivasis have demanded greater recognition
of their rights. However, the government has now been
able to bring these groups to the negotiation table.
Both the Karbi insurgent outfits, United People’s
Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) and Karbi Longri North
Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF) and both the Dimasa
insurgent outfits, Dima Halam Daogah – Nunisa
faction (DHD) and the Black Widow (Dima Halam Daogah-Jewel
Garlossa faction or DHD-J) are now at ceasefire with
the government and all their cadres are staying at designated
camps and have laid down their arms. Of these outfits,
DHD-J laid down their arms on October 2, 2009 and KLNLF
laid down arms on February 11, 2010. Two insurgent outfits
of the Adivasi community, Birsa Commando Force (BCF)
and Adivasi Cobra Force (ACF), are also in suspension
of operation with the State Government.
In November 2007, the movement of the 28th battalion
of ULFA (the group’s most potent strike unit)
was disrupted in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland –
a territory used by the ULFA to travel between Assam
and Myanmar. On November 11, the NSCN (IM) carried out
an ambush on ULFA men in transit in Nagaland’s
Mon District and killed two ULFA cadres keeping two
others as hostages thus restricting ULFA’s movement.
This was apparently the result of ULFA’s warmed
up relations with the NSCN (K) – the rival group
of NSCN (IM). ULFA’s earlier partner in terror,
the NSCN (IM) refused any right of movement for ULFA
cadres through Naga territory. However, ULFA’s
route to Bangladesh through Garo Hills of Meghalaya
remained undisrupted.
During the early part of 2007, ULFA formed strategic
alliances with small extremist groups such as the KLNLF
and the AANLA. The violent drive carried out by the
KLNLF against the Hindi-speaking trading community in
the Karbi Anglong district in August 2007 was supported
by the ULFA and, on several occasions ULFA cadres were
directly involved in the attacks. Again, ULFA’s
support to AANLA, earlier a nascent outfit with about
50 cadres, has actually transformed it into a violent
group with access to sophisticated arms and ammunitions.
On June 24, 2008, the Alfa and Charlie companies of
the ULFA's Myanmar-based 28th battalion declared a unilateral
ceasefire and came over-ground seeking a negotiated
settlement to their three-decade-old problem. They declared
that they would have no links with the ULFA and they
would be called as the “pro-talk ULFA faction”.
They also gave up the demand for sovereignty or independence
and said that they want to work towards achieving greater
autonomy for Assam.
In Bangladesh, the crackdown against Indian militant
outfits by the Awami League Government brought in great
results towards the end of 2009, with arrests of top
leaders of the ULFA. On November 6, 2009, ULFA's 'foreign
secretary' Sashadhar Choudhury and 'finance secretary'
Chitraban Hazarika were handed over to the Indian authorities.
Within a month of these arrests, on December 4, 2009,
ULFA 'Chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa and 'Deputy commander-in-chief'
Raju Baruah were handed over to the Indian authorities.
These arrests have weakened the outfit to a great extent
and Paresh Baruah, ULFA’s ‘Commander-in-chief’,
is the sole remaining top leader in the outfit.
After all these developments, peace talk with ULFA
was expected to speed up. But the talks are yet to start
as the issue of ‘sovereignty’ is becoming
a roadblock. The government doesn’t want to discuss
it and the ULFA want it to be included in the talks.
However, the level of violence by ULFA has come down
with no violent incident done by it during the first
six months of 2010. But, on 30 July, 2010 ULFA triggered
a landmine blast at Bhalukdubi in Goalpara district,
killing 5 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers
and injuring 40 others.
The state witnessed a massive ethnic cleansing in July
2008. At least 49 people were killed and more than 100,000
people fled their homes in violence between members
of the Bodo tribe and Muslim migrant settlers in the
northern districts of Udalguri and Darrang. In retaliation,
the Muslims also attacked the Bodos. The Government
blamed the NDFB as instrumental in triggering the violence.
The clashes were the latest in a long-simmering conflict
between the indigenous communities in Assam, both Hindus
and Christians, and the Muslim immigrants. The locals
targeted Muslim settlers in the past too out of fear
of being overrun by them. In February 1983, over 2,100
people, mostly Bangladeshi immigrants, were killed in
clashes with tribesmen in central Assam.
Despite years of violence, no one had seen anything
like the nine coordinated bombs that killed 89 people
and wounded more than 300 in four towns – Guwahati,
Barpeta, Bongaingaon and Kokrajhar on October 30, 2008
– thus raising the possibility that better-armed,
better-trained militants have joined the fray. The investigations
that followed brought forward the involvement of the
ULFA, NDFB and the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami
(HuJI) in the blasts. The blasts also showed the increasing
nexus between the Northeast militant groups with the
jihadi outfits. However, after the arrest of Ranjan
Daimari, the chief of anti-talk faction of NDFB, it
has become clear that the anti-talk faction of the NDFB
was behind the blasts. After the October 30 serial blasts,
the Assam Government declared a "zero tolerance"
policy regarding militancy in the State. The Assam Preventive
Detention (Amendment) Act, 2009 was passed by the Assam
Legislative Assembly on January 10, 2009. The Act rose
the maximum period of preventive detention of terrorist
suspects from six months to two years.
Internal differences within NDFB, the only surviving
Bodo insurgent group widened following the expulsion
of its founder president, Ranjan Daimary, alias D.R.
Nabla following accusation of his involvement in the
October 30 serial explosions. On December 15, 2008,
the NDFB replaced Ranjan Daimary, with B. Sungthagra
alias Dhiren Boro, as its new president at a meeting
held in Kokrajhar. A few days later, Daimary was expelled
from the group. The NDFB now has two factions - a pro-talk
faction led by Dhiren Boro and another hardliner led
by Ranjan Daimary who claims to represent the ‘real’
NDFB. The anti-talk faction of NDFB received a big blow
when its leader Ranjan Daimari was arrested in Bangladesh
and later handed over to Indian authorities on May 1,
2010. During interrogation he confessed that the October
30 serial explosions in Assam that killed about 90 people
and wounded more than 300 people were carried out under
his express instructions. He also said that he is ready
for peace talks and would be able to make his commanders
and cadres surrender if New Delhi was keen for negotiations.
But the anti-talk faction of NDFB is still carrying
on its violent activities. On July 8, 2010 the outfit
triggered a powerful blast that flung the locomotive
and two coaches of Kolkata-bound Garib Rath Express
from the tracks, killing a six-year-old boy and injuring
23 others at Gossaigaon in Kokrajhar district. On 26
July, 2010 it killed four jawans of the Sashastra Seema
Bal and injured two others in an ambush at Amlaiguri
in Chirang district bordering Bhutan. The faction then
carried out a violent attack between November 8 and
November 10, 2010 killing 23 people in 11 separate attacks
across five Bodo dominated districts of Assam. The killings
were in retaliation to the killing of a NDFB anti-talk
faction cadre on November 8, 2010 by the 51 Gorkha Regiment
of the Indian Army. Earlier, on November 1, 2010 the
anti-talk faction had issued a warning to the State
Government that if any NDFB cadres were killed by the
Indian Army in the name of fake encounter, the armed
wing of the NDFB will take action against Indians.
The anti-talk faction of NDFB suffered another major
blow in December, 2010 when security forces arrested
its deputy commander-in-chief B Jwangkhang alias George
Boro in Aizawl, Mizoram. He is one of the key accused
of 30 October 2008 serial bomb blasts in Assam. He is
now in judicial custody.
On January 2011, the faction declared a unilateral
truce with the government of India in response to the
government's call for negotiations.
In the North Cachar Hills district, the breakaway faction
of the DHD, the DHD (J), popularly known as the Black
Widow, unleashed a reign of terror. There was an increase
in the number of militant activities, killings, abductions,
extortions, etc in the region. It had thrown spanner
in all development works in the hill areas, including
work on the East West Corridor project of the National
Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and a railway gauge
conversion project. However, the arrest of the outfit’s
leader Jewel Garlossa along with two of his associates
in Bangalore on June 4, 2009 changed the insurgency
scenario in the district. Immediately after his arrest,
the outfit announced a unilateral ceasefire with the
state government. Finally on October 2, 2009, 382 cadres
of DHD-J laid down their arms in front of the authorities
at Haflong, headquarter of NC Hills District.
In November 2009, the National Investigation Agency
(NIA), which is probing the alleged diversion of funds
of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council to the
DHD-J, charge-sheeted the outfit’s 'chief' Jewel
Garlossa and 'commander-in-chief' Niranjan Hojai. While
Jewel Garlossa is still in judicial custody, Niranjan
Hojai went missing after he was charge sheeted. He was
arrested from Nepal on July 2 and is now being interrogated
by the NIA.
There has been ethnic tension in the NC Hills district
between Zemi Naga tribes and Dimasas since March, 2009
following the killing of 4 Zemi Naga tribals in Mahur
Sub-division between March 19-23, 2009. The cadres of
DHD (J) were suspected to be behind the incident. Since
then, 65 persons have been killed of whom 41 belong
to the Naga community and 24 to the Dimasa community.
A total of 571 houses have been burnt of which 228 belonged
to Nagas and 343 to Dimasas.
The presence of Islamist militancy in Assam is mainly
linked to illegal migration from Bangladesh and could
be found in concentrations of migrant populations, mostly
in Dhubri, Nagaon and Goalpara Districts.
On March 29, 2010, Assam Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain
in the State Legislative Assembly said that there are
seven militant groups active in Assam. Among these militant
groups, the ULFA has strength of 875 cadres, while the
anti-talk faction of the NDFB has 225 cadres, AANLA
has 30 cadres, Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA) has 40
cadres, Hmar People's Convention- Democracy (HPC-D)
has 50 cadres, MULTA has 110 cadres and Assam unit of
the Harkat-ul-Mujaheedin (HuM) has 45 cadres. The Minister
further said that the Unified Command structure is active
in the State for launching coordinated operations against
militants.
On July 12, 2010, Rockybul Hussain said in the State
Legislative Assembly that seven new militant outfits
have been formed in Assam in recent times. These nascent
rebel outfits are the Liberation Democratic Council
of Mising Land, the United Tribal Liberation Front,
the United Tribal Revolutionary Army, the Dimasa National
Liberation Front, the Gorkha Liberation Army, the Hills
Tiger Force and the Santhal Tiger Force.
Between 1992 and 2010, 7,522 insurgency related fatalities
were reported in Assam. During this period, 3,961 civilians
and 792 security force personnel were killed in terrorist
violence. On the other hand, the number of militants
killed in Assam during the same period is 2,769. (Source:
www.satp.org)
Efforts at building peace in Assam have been made
both at the government and the civil society level.
Starting with the late 1980s, the government attempted
to establish links with the ULFA through intermediaries.
In 1992, the government even released some of the arrested
ULFA leaders including its general secretary Anup Chetia
to start a peace process. Chetia, however, jumped bail
and went underground. The outfit, till the beginning
of 2001, maintained a stand that peace talks with the
government is possible only after three of its conditions
are satisfied: talks should be outside India, under
the supervision of the United Nations (UN) and that
the dialogue must centre around its core demand of sovereignty
of Assam. This was unacceptable to the Government. By
2005, however, ULFA had given up two of these conditions
and demanded that talks must discuss the issue of Assam’s
sovereignty.
On September 8, 2005, the ULFA formed the People’s
Consultative Group (PCG), comprising 11 hand-picked
people from various walks of life to prepare the ground-work
for the eventual initiation of talks with the Union
Government. The PCG held three rounds of dialogue with
the government over a period of one year during which
the government announced a six-week long ceasefire with
the outfit. However, the process collapsed on 26 September
2006 with the truce being called off by the government
as both sides refused to deviate from their positions—the
ULFA wanting the release from prison of five of its
detained leaders and the government insisting on a written
communication that the outfit was indeed interested
on talking peace. ULFA, in the meantime, had consolidated
its position and carried on with its activities.
While the civil society groups in the State including
the student’s organisations such as AASU, Assam
Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chhatra Parishad (AJYCP), literary
organisations including the Assam Sahitya Sabha (ASS)
have periodically attempted to get involved in the peace
process, ULFA’s recalcitrant attitude has created
problems. Similarly, attempts by individuals including
singer Bhupen Hazarika have not been acceptable to the
outfit. Public organisations like the Assam Public Works
(APW) have been largely seen as pro-government and their
activities have been limited to creating public awareness
against ULFA violence. On the other hand, ULFA propped
up bodies like the PCG and the People's Committee for
Peace Initiatives in Assam (PCIPIA) too have not been
totally acceptable to the government for their pro-ULFA
outlook. Contribution of the community-based organisations
in bringing Bodo insurgency to a close, on the other
hand, has been more successful. The All Bodo Students’
Union (ABSU), the Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS) and the Bodo
People’s Action Committee (BPAC) have played crucial
roles in bringing both the BLT and the NDFB to the negotiating
table.
On June 24, 2008 the Alfa and Charlie companies of
ULFA announced ceasefire, igniting hope that peace efforts
in the state would gain momentum. The leaders of the
pro-talk faction of the ULFA, as they are now called,
met with the intelligentsia and student bodies of the
state to chart out a road map to usher in peace in Assam.
They also held several meetings at various places in
order to understand the general feeling among the common
people and involve them in the peace process. They submitted
a charter of demands to the Prime Minister in February
2009 demanding "full autonomy" to Assam within
the constitutional framework. The charter says that
full autonomy to the state can be the only solution
to the ‘Assam-India conflict’ as it would
remove the fear and insecurity from the minds of the
indigenous people and provide safeguards to land, language,
economy and right of self-determination.
However, with the arrests of top leaders of the ULFA,
now a new hope has arisen for the holding of peace talks.
The government has already shown its interest in holding
talks with the outfit, with or without the presence
of ULFA ‘commander-in-chief’ Paresh Baruah.
However, the outfit is not ready to hold talks with
the government unless the issue of ‘sovereignty’
is discussed in the talks.
Meanwhile a group of eminent citizens of the state,
led by eminent intellectual Dr. Hiren Gohain, formed
a State Level Convention, ‘Sanmilita Jatiya Abhivartan’,
in order to restore peace between the insurgents and
the government and facilitate an environment for effective
peace talks between the two. The convention called upon
both New Delhi and the ULFA to come forward for the
negotiation table without any pre-condition (and without
delay). In a draft resolution, the convention called
upon the government to pave way for free passages to
the jailed ULFA leaders such that they can go for an
agreed decision (in their central committee meeting)
to talk to New Delhi.
But the response that the convention received from
Paresh Barua was not comfortable for it. In a prompt
statement e-mailed to the media, the ULFA ‘commander-in-chief’
not only criticized the convention for its initiative,
but also alleged that they had not adequate knowledge
about the freedom movement of ULFA. He also asserted
that there would be no talks without the issue of ‘sovereignty’
being discussed.
On May 26, 2010, the Assam State Cabinet decided to
start the process of talks with the ULFA without Paresh
Baruah. However, the Government also made it clear that
the anti-insurgency operations against those who try
to indulge in violence would continue. The available
members of the ULFA’s general council met on May
28, 2010 in Guwahati Central Jail to take a decision
regarding peace talks with the government. However,
they decided that it was not proper to start talks without
its commander-in-chief Paresh Barua. The ULFA leaders
also made it clear that only the release of the central
committee leaders of the outfit would facilitate the
policy making body of the ULFA to take vital decisions.
On May 30, 2010, Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi asked
the ULFA to formally apprise the government of its decision
on opening peace talks. He said the rebel group should
tell the government what they want and the government
would discuss their proposals in detail and do whatever
was possible to get the talk process going.
On June 22, 2010 a six-member delegation of the Sanmilita
Jatiya Abhivartan met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and asked him to revive peace talks between the Government
and ULFA. The delegation also discussed the possible
release of jailed ULFA leaders to boost peace talks.
But the government said that it would not release the
jailed leaders. The members of the convention again
met the Prime Minister, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi
and Home Minister P. Chidambaram during 21-26 July,
2010 and urged them to expedite the process for starting
the peace process.
On July 15, 2010 the Centre appointed PC Haldar, former
Director (IB), as interlocutor to take forward the process
of initiating peace process with the ULFA. He is also
the interlocutor for talks with NDFB, DHD (J) and UPDS.
He met with the ULFA leadership in Guwahati Central
Jail on July 23, 2010 and said that he was 'satisfied'
with the talks and hoped that the peace process will
be initiated soon.
The level of violence by ULFA has come down with only
one incident reported in 2010. That was on 30 July,
2010 when ULFA triggered a landmine blast at Bhalukdubi
in Goalpara district, killing 5 Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF) troopers and injuring 40 others. This has
raised questions again on the possibility of holding
peace talks with the group. This show of strength by
the outfit is being seen as an effort to derail the
negotiation process.
The state government, in order to facilitate the peace
talks with ULFA, have started not objecting to the bail
pleas of the jailed ULFA leaders. This has paved the
way for their release and already all the top leaders
of the ULFA are out of the jail. This include chairman
Arabinda Rajkhowa, vice chairman Pradip Gogoi, publicity
chief Mithinga Daimary, deputy commander-in-chief Raju
Baruah, finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika, foreign
secretary Sasadhar Choudhury, cultural secretary Pranati
Deka, and political ideologue Bhimkanta Buragohain.
There are also chances of ULFA general secretary Anup
Chetia being extradited to India to help him take part
in the proposed peace talks. Now expectations are on
for a meeting of the ULFA general council soon, which
will decide the outfit’s stand on the peace talks.
A rift within the ULFA became visible when ULFA sent
out a message declaring continuation of its fight for
a sovereign Assam. The message was accompanied with
a photograph of Paresh Barua and armed cadres of ULFA
in battle fatigues. For the first time since its formation,
ULFA also sent a video footage showing Paresh Barua
and the ULFA cadres. The video displayed ULFA cadres
giving slogans against peace talks and vowing to fight
for a sovereign Assam. The photograph was sent on 20
January, 2011 and the video on 21 January, 2011.
On the other hand, after the arrest of NDFB chief Ranjan
Daimary, the bodo heartland seems to have taken a sigh
of relief. Ranjan Daimary has agreed for peace talks
and said that he would be able to make his commanders
and cadres surrender if New Delhi was keen for negotiations.
But the faction is still carrying on its subversive
activities.
The situation in the hill district of Karbi Anglong
in Assam is also peaceful. Both the insurgent outfits
of the district are on a ceasefire mode with the government.
The UPDS also held a round of peace talks with the central
government and the state government on 22 December 2010
in New Delhi where all the three sides approved a draft
accord paving the way for the signing of a memorandum
of agreement (MoA).
At present, eight rebel groups/factions of the State
are in ceasefire with the government. They are the UPDS,
KLNLF, DHD-N, DHD-J, NDFB (Dhiren Boro group), Adivasi
Cobra Militant Force (ACMF), Birsa Commando Force (BCF)
and Alfa and Charlie companies of the ‘28th battalion’
of ULFA. As many as 2,680 cadres of these rebel groups
are in various designated camps in the State. However,
peace talks have not yet gained momentum with any of
the rebel groups in Assam.
(Updated till 26 January, 2011)
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