What Bodos’ latest attack in Kokrajhar means
It is easy to attribute the shooting to intelligence failure.
But that would be ignoring the complex environment prevailing in Assam
POLITICS
| 5-minute read | 06-08-2016
Two to
four Bodo militants travelling in an auto rickshaw opened fire and killed 13
people and left 14 others wounded in the busy Friday market of Kokrajhar in
Assam on August 5. Indian Army, paramilitary forces and police are jointly
carrying out search operations to apprehend the other militants, who threw a
grenade and set fire to shops before fleeing the scene.
Army jawans present on the spot shot dead one
of the militants armed with an AK-47 rifle. Mobile phone recovered from the dead
militant showed probably he belonged to the hard line faction - the National
Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit (NDFB-S), though the organization
quickly disowned the attack.
Songbijit Ingti Kathar, the military chief of
the NDFB, broke away to form the NDFB-S in 2012, as he was against holding
peace talks with the government mooted by the NDFB leadership. He has expressed
his determination to carry on the armed struggle for the creation of
independent Bodoland in an interview
in 2013.
In all likelihood, Songbijit is sending a
strong message with the latest attack in Kokrajhar that he might be down but
not out, as the group had been on a low profile since 2015. However, NDFB-S should
not be ignored as it is known to have connections across the border with the
United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) faction and Kamtapur Liberation
Organisation (KLO) holed up in Myanmar. The
other two factions – NDFB (Ranjan Daimary) and NDFB (Pro-talks) are observing
ceasefire pending peace talks with the government.
The NDFB is one of the three proscribed
insurgent groups in Assam; it had carried out sporadic attacks in the region
along the north bank of Brahmaputra for the creation of an independent Bodoland.
During its peak period of militancy between 1992 and 2001, the NDFB violence had
resulted in the death of over 172 security forces and over 1200 civilians,
while NDFB lost 370 cadres.
The Songbijit faction is the only carrying out
insurgency now.
Doubts have been expressed about the
involvement of NDFB-S because the attack was carried out brazenly in the style
of jihadi militants. Moreover, NDFB-S in
the past had targeted only Muslims and Adivasis whereas those killed in
Kokrajhar attack included six Bodos. But that would under estimating the
possibility of Songbijit changing his tactics.
The NDFB-S is capable of vicious killings; it
responsible for killing about 100 people in a series of attacks carried out in
the same region in May and December 2014. In the May 2014 attacks alone it had
killed 32 Muslims who had been its main target.
It is easy to attribute the latest attack to
intelligence failure. But that would be ignoring the complex environment
prevailing in Assam as a result of over five decades of insurgency. The state has
seen the rise of nearly 60 militant groups in this period; out of this seven
are active at present. Thirteen groups are either observing ceasefire or
involved in peace talks, while 36 other outfits have become inactive.
Kokrajhar is in the heartland of Bodo tribals
who number around a million. The headquarters
of the Bodo Territorial Area Districts (BTAD), an autonomous administrative
unit of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), created under the sixth
schedule of the constitution, is located there. It was created in December 2003
after the state and central governments signed the Bodoland Accord with the biggest Bodo insurgent group –the Bodoland
Liberation Tigers (BLT) in February 2003.
The BTAD covers the districts of Kokrajhar,
Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri with a population of over three million people. It was
created to fulfill the aspirations of Bodo tribals inhabiting the neglected
region to preserve their land rights and linguistic, socio-cultural and ethnic
identity as well as to economically develop the region.
However, the creation of BTC did not satisfy
the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) and Bodo Peoples Action Council (BPAC) which
had led a violent struggle for the creation of an independent Bodoland from
March 1987 onwards. However, the creation of the BTC politically divided the
Bodo community. The NDFB was a product of these divisions within the community.
The problems of the region are far from over although
the BTAD’s chief administrator Hagrama Mohilary was the head of the BLT
militant group in the past. It had not been able to bring about the expected
development in the region. The infrastructure development has not kept pace
with the requirement of the difficult terrain crisscrossed by tributaries flowing
into Brahmaputra.
The region has also seen the backlash against
Bodo domination from other minority communities, particularly Muslims and
Adivasis inhabiting the region. Muslims and Adivasis had raised their own
militant groups to fight the Bodo militants; now they are observing ceasefire. This
has enabled militant groups like the NDFB-S to survive and carryout sporadic
violent activities.
It will be facetious to ignore the lingering
insurgency problem in Assam. Unfortunately, despite all the lip service, the
Northeast continues to be neglected and languishes on the periphery of the
national mainstream. But things are changing now as many leaders with militancy background have joined mainstream politics in Assam. For
instance, Naba Kumar Sarania, the independent MP elected from Kokrajhar, was a
dreaded leader of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).
Unfortunately, we seem to forget that insurgency
in the Northeast is a challenge not only to the state and central governments
but also the people of India as it is a vanguard to strategic security and
remains our tenuous land link to Southeast Asia.
Courtesy: India Today opinion portal DailyO http://www.dailyo.in/politics/kokrajhar-terror-ndfb-bodos-ulfa-assam-bjp-insurgency/story/1/12215.html
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