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North East : Ethnic strife in Assam : Bodo extremists on killing spree |
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Controversy over the formation of a Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) has led to fresh bloodshed in Bodo areas of Assam resulting in the killing of over 20 people in separate incidents during the week under review.
The outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) which is opposing the Centre’s move to create the BTC, expressed its opposition by resorting to bloodshed, killing non-Assamese who migrated from the neighbouring state of Bihar.
In a late night strike on January 22, the NDFB militants killed nearly 20 Bihari labourers, including nine women, in Darrang district. According to official sources, a group of at least 15 NDFB ultras raided the remote village of Junglebari under Udalguri police station along the Indo-Bhutan border, and asked the villagers to come out of their houses before shooting them. The village is inhabited by people from Bihar who had settled in the area since long and are engaged as daily wage labourers. Before fleeing, the rebels also set 20 houses ablaze in a chilling warning to the non-Bodos to leave the Bodo-dominated areas.
Politicians, as is usual with them, have shed their crocodile tears over the incident. The State Rural Development Minister, Upendra Prasad, while expressing grief over the incident, said the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had written a letter to Union Home Minister Advani asking for more forces to deal with the state’s problems. Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi has demanded that both Assam and Union Government should provide adequate security to the migrant labourers in Assam.
According to observers, the tragic incident which came barely a few hours after the Centre decided to extend the ceasefire with the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) by another six months, may cause a severe blow to the peace process initiated by the Centre with the BLT.
The deliberate attack on a settlement of non-Bodos - like the previous incident - was a grim reminder of the outfit’s resolve to “cleanse” its territory of all “outsiders” whom it considers a hurdle in the way of creating a “sovereign Bodoland”, exclusively for the Bodos. The NDFB’s renewed target of no9n-Bodos was also being seen as the outfit’s attempts to stay afloat in the Bodo affairs.
With all the major Bodo groups backing the Centre-BLT peace talks and the proposal to create the Bodo Territorial Council, the NDFB is facing the prospect of its armed struggle becoming redundant. “The killings are an attempt to stall the peace process and nothing else,” said Director General of Police, Harekrishna Deka.
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