Bloodshed in Assam

Violent attacks involving Bodo militants and other groups of tribal people in Lower Assam leave dozens of people dead and hundreds of houses destroyed.

KALYAN CHAUDHURI

KOKRAJHAR district in Lower Assam's Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) region experienced last fortnight another virulent outbreak of violence - part of the continuing pattern of ethnic conflict there. On September 15, 48 people were killed and over 500 houses were burnt as Bodos and Adivasis clashed in the Bodo-dominated Gosaigaon subdivision. Of those killed in the violence, the worst of its kind in Assam in recent months, four were Bodos, seven Santhals and 37 Oraons.

Amidst mounting tension, thousands of villagers fled their homes. Over 70,000 people, including Bodos, Santhals and Oraons have taken shelter in 28 relief camps. The worst-affected villages were Ranipur, Dalgaon, Sidlijora, Amguri, Jampukhuri, Sapkata, Bhanpur, Saraibil, Gansilla and Lakhiguri.

The latest outbreak of violence began with the killing of Adivasi Seva Samity (ASS) general secretary Satyan Soren and his four-year-old son by militants of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) on September 9. In retaliation for this, Santhal militants burnt 109 Bodo homes in Bodomdhari and Sindhrijhar villages and razed 35 houses in Sapkata village on September 10.

Bodos attacked a relief camp at Balegaon in Gasaingaon subdivision and killed an Adivasi woman. They also burnt 190 Santhal homes, in Koksaguri, Surendrapur and Sabkakat villages in the subdivision, on September 13. On September 15, extremists belonging to the NDFB, armed with guns and sharp weapons, swooped down on the Ranipur-Dalgaon area, inhabited by the Oraon tribal people, and killed 14 persons. The militants then attacked several nearby villages and killed seven Santhals and 23 Oraons. Four Bodos lost their lives in the violence.

Sources said that even though the district administration had warned about a possible outbreak of violence, the Army was withdrawn from the district on September 13 and repositioned at Kameng along the border with China in Arunachal Pradesh. This emboldened Bodo militants, who gunned down 45-year-old Phanindra Roy, a State executive member of the ruling Asom Gana Parishad, in Kokrajhar town on September 16. The killing took place within hours of Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's visit to the riot-hit areas of Gosaigaon subdivision. Shortly after the September 15 incident the Deputy Commissioner of Police S. Thadou was transferred.

The police said that ethnic conflicts in the area had left over 300 persons dead this year. On July 25, Bodo militants hacked to death eight Santhals at the Saraitala relief camp in Kokrajhar district. In retaliation, Santhal militants, armed with machetes and bows and arrows, attacked the twin villages of Moinapur and Diamaguri and killed 12 Bodos, all women and children (Frontline, August 28).

UTPAL BARUA/REUTERS
Bodo tribal people searching through the burnt remains of their houses in Kokrajhar district in Lower Assam on September 18.

In recent years, Bodo rebels have turned against Santhals and other tribal people who work in the tea gardens. They consider Santhals and other minority groups living in the BAC area enemies, and hold them responsible for their own economic and other problems.

The Santhals, who were at the receiving end for long, have started to retaliate. Since the 1996 riots, which constituted the worst incidents of ethnic violence in which over 100 Santhals were killed, they have organised themselves. Intelligence sources said that they had formed their own underground armed groups - the Birsa Commando Force (BCF) and the Adivasi Cobra Militant Force (ACMF) - and were now better equipped to resist Bodo extremists. They do not rule out more such militant groups surfacing in the BAC areas in the future. Another anti-Bodo group that has come up in recent times is the Bengal Tiger Force (BTF).

THE frequent outbreak of violence in Lower Assam is a reminder that the Bodoland Accord, which paved the way for the formation of the BAC, has failed to contain militancy among the tribal communities.

State Congress(I) leaders told Frontline that the violence had vindicated the position taken by former Congress(I) Chief Minister Hiteswar Saikia who, they said, had maintained that the Bodoland Accord would create widespread disturbances in and around the BAC area. Tension has prevailed in the region since the accord was signed on February 20, 1993. The BAC covers nearly 2,300 sq km in Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Nalbari, Darrang, Mangaldai and Sonitpur districts on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra in Lower Assam.

They said that Saikia signed the accord despite his reservations about sections pertaining to boundary demarcation and that this was because he was under pressure from Rajesh Pilot, Union Minister of State for Internal Security at that time. A section of the Bodo leadership, led by former All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) chief S.K. Bwismutary, wanted 515 more villages to be included in the BAC over and above the number agreed to by the Government, so that the area remained contiguous.

The State Government took the position that these villages could not be given away as Bodos constituted less than 2 per cent of their population. Saikia had wanted the BAC boundary to be demarcated clearly before an accord was signed with the ABSU and the Bodo People's Action Committee (BPAC). He had cautioned that under the accord, non-Bodo communities such as Hindu and Muslim Bengalis and various other tribal communities, including Santhals, Oraons and Ravas, who formed more than 50 per cent of the population in the BAC area, would be reduced to second class citizens.

Soon after the accord was signed, armed activists of the outlawed Bodo Security Force (BdSF) demanded that "Bodoland" be "liberated" and went ahead with a brutal plan of attacking non-Bodo communities. Tension escalated when non-Bodos in the BAC region objected to being included in the territory. Today, the slogan of the Bodo militants is : "Liberated Bodoland is for Bodos alone."

MEANWHILE, the Assam Government is all set to move the Guwahati High Court seeking modification of an order regarding the demarcation of the BAC boundary. Officials said that on July 23, 1997, the Guwahati High Court, had directed the State Government not to include in the BAC area any village in which the tribal people formed less than 50 per cent of the population, until it disposed of a writ petition filed by the Assam Ana Bodo Ganatantra Sura-ksha Samiti (AABGSS). However, the court had also said that the State Government may come up for modification/alteration and/or cancellation of the order by filing the necessary applications.

STATE Government officials said that the Government proposed to redraw the BAC boundary by extending it up to the India-Bhutan border to the north and the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border to the east, subject to the Central Government's clearance. The Bodo accord had fixed the Sankosh river and the Majbat/Pasnoi river as the western and eastern boundaries of the BAC and excluded 10 km of the India-Bhutan border belt to the north from its jurisdiction. The fresh demarcation will include all villages in the tribal belts, blocks, reserve forests and Scheduled Tribe Assembly constituencies within the BAC to form a compact area.

Certain Bodo groups have been demanding the inclusion of more villages in the BAC area. But this was opposed by the non-tribal people who feared that such an action would affect their interests. The writ petition in the High Court was filed in this backdrop. The ABSU, which is a signatory to the Bodo accord, has already rejected the BAC and now wants a separate State for the Bodo people.

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