Guwahati: Militancy, it seems, has become a cancer that can be hardly cured in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTC) areas comprising four districts in Assam.
Even after repeated peace overtures initiated by the Union government to bring all the Bodo tribe militant groups to the political ‘mainstream’, new militant groups continue to crop up in the area nullifying the efforts to restore lasting peace.
The blood-splattered days of 1990s and early 2000s when militancy was at its devastating best in Bodo heartland in Assam, culminated into Bodo Peace Accord signed in 2003 with Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) ultras and the government of India.
The accord resulted in formation of the BTC under the amended Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The BTC is now being ruled by Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), a political party formed by the leaders and members of the now disbanded BLT.
However, the Peace Accord did not include another formidable militant group, National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), as a signatory and the outfit remained at large ‘fighting’ for a ‘sovereign Bodoland’ even after signing of the Accord.
Later, a vertical split occurred in the NDFB after the outfit under the leadership of self-styled chairman Ranjan Daimary allegedly triggered serial blasts in Assam on October 30, 2008 which left about 100 persons killed and over 400 injured.
The NDFB which was preparing to hold talks with the Government of India, then expelled Ranjan Daimary. Daimary in turn split the outfit and the faction loyal to him came to be known as NDFB(R ).
The pro-talks faction was called NDFB (Progressive) led by one Govinda Basumatary. The NDFB (P) started formal negotiation with the government of India in 2009 with Ranjan Daimary and his followers still remaining at large.
Ranjan Daimary was subsequently arrested in Bangladesh and was handed over to Indian authorities and Assam Police in 2010.
He was put behind the bar and made to face trial on various charges including that of masterminding the 2008 serial blasts even as pressure mounted on the government by civil society groups among Bodos to release him on bail to help his group, NDFB (R), to enter into a peace process with the Government of India.
The government’s peace interlocutor P C Haldar prepared ground for the peace overture with the NDFB( R) by talking to Daimary while in the jail. Finally, a truce agreement was materialized between the Government of India and NDFB (R ) led by Ranjan Daimary on November 30 this year.
But militancy is yet to be resolved in Bodo heartland of Assam as another faction of the NDFB led by one Sangbijit has started creating another spell of serious trouble in the area by resorting to rampant extortions and abduction. It has come to such a passé that Assam Police have launched a specific counter-insurgency operation in the BTC area to neutralize the rampaging group that is posing grave threat to the peace in Assam especially in BTC areas now.
