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A violent push

Shamil Shams December 26, 2014

The Indian military has launched an offensive against militants in the insurgency-marred northeastern state of Assam, after some 69 people were killed recently in the latest incident of separatist violence.

https://p.dw.com/p/1EALS
Tribal plantation workers armed with tools for self-defence move to a safer place after ethnic clashes in Tenganala village in Sonitpur district, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam December 24, 2014 (Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)
Image: Reuters/Stringer

Around 2,000 people have fled their homes in Assam since a militant attack by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which has been waging a decades-long armed insurgency in pursuit of an independent country for the ethnic Bodo people.

Those who were killed on December 23 were tea plantation workers belonging to the Adivasi tribe, a mixture of Hindus and Christians. Earlier this year, some 10,000 people were forced to flee their homes following a similar outbreak of clashes that left 45 people dead.

The volatile northeastern state, famous for its tea estates, has been devastated by worst fighting between rival tribes as well as the insurgents' attacks on security forces and government officials in the past decades. The state government regularly targets the militants' hideouts in the countryside but has not been able to wipe them out from the region.

Activists of the Assam Tea Tribes Student Association (ATTSA) shout slogans as they block the road with burning tyres during a protest against attacks on villagers by militants in four different locations, at Biswanath Chariali in the Sonitpur district of northeastern Assam state on December 24, 2014 (Photo: STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)
The central government has long ignored the plight of many marginalized communities in the remote regionImage: STR/AFP/Getty Images

The recent attack prompted the central government in New Delhi to increase coordination with the Assam authorities. Indian army chief Dalbir Singh Suhag told reporters on December 26 that he had a meeting with the country's Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Suhag said that security operations in the state would be intensified.

The home minister earlier pledged the authorities would be "tough" on those responsible for the "act of terror."

On December 24, the state government deployed troops in Assam and imposed a curfew as villagers launched retaliatory attacks on Bodo settlements.

'Zero tolerance'

Observers say the authorities are using a "carrot and stick" policy to deal with the separatists due to the ongoing negotiations with the NDFB.

"We see a division among the militant groups. Some factions want to talk to the government, while others want to use violence. We have witnessed the same trend in other conflict-ridden northeastern states like Mizoram and Nagaland," Sauraj Kaushal, former governor of the Mizoram state, told DW.

"The government should be very careful and sensible in these situations. To avoid bloodshed and violence, we must engage with all groups," Kaushal added.

But the home minister said the time for negotiations was over. "We have a zero tolerance policy against terrorism. And we have decided that those who carry out such massacres will face the same tough treatment that terrorists do," Rajnath Singh told the media.

Persistent discrimination

But rights groups believe the main reason behind the unending conflict in Assam and other northeastern states is New Delhi's treatment of the region. They say that the central government has long ignored the plight of many marginalized communities in the remote region.

The Indian government is fighting a battle with many rebel groups not only in Assam but also in other northeastern states. The insurgents demand either autonomy or independence from the Indian state, saying New Delhi is treating them like a "step-mother."

While the poverty ratio in most parts of India has decreased in the past years, according to the Indian federal Planning Commission, it has increased in five northeastern states. Experts say that separatists seem to be using the economic deprivation of the region as an ideological justification for their movement.

Murali Krishnan, DW's correspondent in New Delhi, says the Indian state has done little to bring this area into the mainstream. "It's been 67 years since India gained its independence, yet there are a large number of marginalized and neglected people in the country's northeastern states."