India’s North East comprises of seven states, fondly referred to as the
Seven Sisters. More aptly these could be called as seven neglected girl
children of India, for the state of law and order in this area despite
60 years of combating insurgency in many parts as Nagaland remains
precarious. Overtly there may be no cause for alarm, but the underlying
currents of militancy and plain bland criminalized terrorism are strong.
Here is an account which should lead the reader to make his or her own
judgment.
Firstly the orderly affairs in the area. Three states in the North East,
Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland successfully completed the process of
state assembly elections. The results in Tripura were on expected lines
as the Manik Sarkar led Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)- Left
Front government was voted back in power with an emphatic 49 seats in a
60 member assembly for the fourth consecutive term. This led the CPI M
leader Sitaram Yechury to comment that incumbency always favours his
Party as it provides clean and efficient governance. This statement does
reflect reality to an extent as Tripura facing militancy with a wide
divide between the tribal and the non tribal population is now
reasonably peaceful with development taking roots. In Nagaland the
ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) which was deposed a few
weeks before elections by enforcing President’s rule regained majority
while in Meghalaya the political turbulence continued with the Congress
government sworn in having to resign before the floor test in the house
and a NCP led one now in office. This does not augur well for stability
in the state.
Now the disorderly. The security situation in Assam and Manipur
continues to be grave. The attacks against Hindi speaking people in
Assam by the ULFA have now extended to Manipur which is a new trend
which should be alarming. The ULFA which had suffered severe blows in
the past has been able to rejuvenate at least some of its operational
potential and will continue to strike with regularity in the days ahead.
The bicycle bomb strategy of the ULFA is particularly dangerous. The
Army is gamely fighting the terrorists even as the police machinery
seems to be faltering.
All pervasiveness of militancy in Assam is evident with a report in the
Asian Age quoting the Assam government denoting existence of nine
militant groups, active in the state with 2,115 armed cadres as on 31
March 2008. There were conflicting signals from Assam’s Chief Minister
Tarun Gogoi when he indicated that as long as Bangladesh serves as the
haven for militants from the North-east, the ULFA will not come forward
for peace talks. He however showed willingness to facilitate the same.
“My Government is ready to facilitate trip of both political and civil
society representatives from the State whoever is willing to hold talks
with the proscribed outfit. They may be Opposition party leaders or
peace interlocutor Mamoni Raisom Goswami. If they can bring the ULFA to
the table, I will be happy to help them.’’ Thankfully it is apparent
that the Central government has spurned these moves which only provide a
loose rope for mayhem to the outlawed terror group.
Even as the government was battling the ULFA, Bodo districts also
erupted in violence with the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB)
and former Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), rivalry spilling over into the
streets. North Cachar continued to be in the grip of violence severely
disrupting infra structure projects in the area. Three engineers working
with a road construction company P L Valecha Engineering Company on the
Mahasark East-West Corridor were among five persons abducted by
suspected Dima Halam Daoga (Black Widow) militants in NC Hills on 13
March.
Manipur continued to be a State of serious security concern with many
fangled militancy spreading across the hills as well as the Valley
region. The final nail was perhaps a bomb hurled by unidentified
militants inside the Manipur Assembly complex on 7 March. This was a
replay at a small scale of the Parliamentary attack in New Delhi by the
Lashkar e Taiyyaba but the state government has not been able to arrest
the militants who having hurled the bomb at 11.30 in the morning got
away.
Close on the heels of the recent attacks on North Indians in Assam and
Maharashtra, unidentified gunmen killed 15 Hindi-speaking migrants in
Manipur on 17 and 18 March in Imphal East and Thoubal districts.
Security forces claimed to have gunned down two militants of the Kanglei
Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), involved in the incident, which set the
government machinery active to stop migrants from leaving the state. On
24 March, PREPAK militants struck at a thabal chongba function (dance
during Holi) at Heirok part-II, killing two teenage girls on the spot
while another girl and a boy were seriously injured. The residents of
Heirok in Thoubal district including three MLAs took out a rally on 28
March in Imphal to protest the killing which was regretted by the PREPAK
later.
The inter group rivalry between the NSCN IM and K groups has now been
extended to the newly formed NSCN (U) which is assuming serious over
tones. This is evident with the current out break of violence which has
resulted in a series of clashes and many instances of abductions in
Nagaland which had subsided during the run up to the elections in the
state.
The North East has no easy options for the Indian government but to
undertake effective counter militancy operations, root out corruption,
break the nexus between the criminals, terrorists and political
groupings and give the people a clean and efficient administration. The
capacity of the police needs to be built up and the army returned to the
barracks. This of course is easier said than done, for engrossed in the,
“weighty” politics around the national capital; the Seven Sisters may
continue to be forgotten in the corridors of power in Delhi.
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