Some Reporters view the Assam massacre as Divide and Rule Policy by Centre which is quite Possible. --------------------------------------------------------- In the last couple of years, over 200 people have been killed by NDFB militants in Assam. None of the terror groups active in India has been responsible for such a staggering number of killings in such a short span of time. If death toll in the 2008 Guwahati serial blasts that were triggered by the same group is added, the figure crosses 300. The Bodo terrorist organisation, now divided into three factions - pro-talk, Ranjan Daimary and Songbijit -has been demanding an independent country for nearly two decades. While the pro-talk faction is holed up in designated camps, head of the second faction Ranjan Daimary is in the Guwahati jail. The most violent of the three, Songbijit, carried out the latest killings. In 2012, when nearly 100 people were killed in clashes between suspected NDFB militants and alleged immigrants from Bangladesh, the media and politicians immediately termed it either communal violence or ethnic cleansing. While the killings were sparked by a struggle for control over land and politics of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) area, it was misinterpreted because the alleged immigrants were Muslims. Though Bodos dominate political power in BTAD following an accord with the government of India under the sixth schedule of Constitution, they are only 30 per cent of the population which is a mix of Hindu Assamese, adivasi, Koch Rajbongshi and Muslims. Ever since the demand for a separate Bodo state or country originated in 1990s, Bodo militant groups have tried to establish monopoly in the geographical region, which is now known as BTAD, by killing or driving out other communities from the region. If the 2012 violence was triggered by political assertions by minority pressure groups in BTAD, the killing of nearly 50 Muslims earlier this year was the retaliation against non-Bodo groups coming together to lend support to a non-Bodo candidate in the Lok Sabha polls. The candidate - a former ULFA militant - eventually won from Kokrajhar, the lone Lok Sabha seat from BTAD. Though Kokrajhar, the capital of BTAD, is one of the locations of the December 23 massacre, the epicentre of violence has shifted this time to Sonitpur. The targets are also different - adivasis, who are mostly Christians. The Bodos are either animists or Christians. In the last six months, the Assam government had intensified operations against NDFB Songbijit faction, which suffered heavy losses in terms of cadre strength and arms. Two days before the attacks, the group had warned of violent retaliation against operations by security forces. The blame doesnt squarely fall on the Assam government only. While tackling insurgent groups, the Centre has often adopted a divide- and-rule policy by engineering splits in these groups. While such experiments may have earned political or electoral gains for the party in power, they fail to address the root causes driving such violent movements. So even after signing several peace treaties, the North-east remains a hotbed of terrorism. The 2004 Bodo accord gave democratic legitimacy to the terror organisation Bodoland Liberation Tigers (BLT), which converted itself to a political party and is now ruling the BTAD. However, even after a decade, the issue of Bodoland continues to create bloodbath in Assam.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 03:02:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015