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Assam’s Dark Underbelly
The net result of the unending violence has been withdrawal of the railway services to the district, resulting in an acute food scarcity in the area. The project works too have stopped as the contractors withdrew their labourers and the railways their employees.
The killings led to usual fire fighting measures by Dispur. The Chief Minister announced that the Army has been instructed to conduct combing operations targeting the militants. Other measures included:
Steps to rectify the “operational weaknesses” in the counter-insurgency operations by setting up a “local” unified command structure in association with the 3 Corps. Unified Command structure that plans and executes counter-insurgency operations does not cover NC Hills. Troops deployed in the district come under the Rangapahar-based 3 Corps in Nagaland unlike the Tezpur-based 4 Corps of the army that combats insurgency in the rest of the state.
The government planned to deploy 2,000 additional ex-servicemen to NC Hills to ensure the security of railway personnel and those working for the broad gauge conversion and the East-West corridor projects in vulnerable stretches. However, the Chief Minister said that response to such a proposal has not been good and hence it would now form an auxiliary force with 1,000 surrendered militants.
Altogether 57 points in the Lumding - Badarpur Hills section have been identified as most sensitive areas, and security measures have been tightened in 52 points.
Instituting a commission of inquiry to probe links between some senior members of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous District Council and the Black Widow. The state government has directed police to register cases against those facing specific charges.
Not even a year ago, the NC Hills district had hogged the news headlines for the murder of two politicians belonging to the Congress Party by the Black Widow militants. On June 4, 2007 Purnendu Langthasa and his colleague Nindu Langthasa had abandoned their 16 armed guards and moved into the remote settlement of Langlai Hasnu, 65 kilometres from the District headquarters town of Haflong. Their mission was to persuade the Black Widow militants to scale down an extortion demand served on the party before the June 12 ADC polls. Discussions were held inside the house of the village headman. However, following altercations, in a completely unanticipated move, militants led Purnendu, the Chief Executive Member (CEM) of the outgoing ADC and Nindu, a former Executive Committee member of the Council, to a slope behind the house and shot them dead. In a separate development the same day, the dead body of Ajit Boro, Vice Chairman of the ADC, abducted a day earlier by unidentified militants, was recovered from the Kalajan area.
The killing of the Langthasa duo was reportedly a fall out of the failure to meet BW monetary demands. While the outfit had demanded INR 150 million, the slain politicians had actually carried suitcases containing currency notes amounting to INR 10 million.
Following the Langthasa duo killing, the Assam Government had rushed in additional Central Para-military force companies into the district. However, such moves were quite predictable and, given the unaltered geographical and infrastructural drawbacks that have aided militancy over the years, did not deliver any significant results. Reports then had indicated a proposed full-scale army flush-out operation in the NC Hills and the neighbouring Karbi Anglong District. As is apparent now, nothing of that nature was undertaken and the net of the limited security force operations were minimal.
Spread over 4,890 square kilometres (6.24 percent of Assam’s total area) and with a population of 186,189 (seven percent of Assam’s population), this sparsely populated district is the third largest in Assam. With a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.363, NC Hills remains part of the State’s extended dark underbelly which ranks a poor 11th on the HDI among 23 districts, according to the Assam Human Development Report, 2003. Geographical remoteness (the district headquarters at Haflong is 370 kilometres away from state capital Dispur), poor communication and a lack of infra-structural facilities continue to afflict the district. The Autonomous District Council (ADC), formed under Articles 244(2) and 275(1) of the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which enumerates special provisions for administration of tribal areas, looks after the revenue administration of the district. However, since its creation in 1952, personal as well as political rivalries have not allowed the ADC to realise its potential as an engine for growth and development.
Six reserve forests and vast stretches of unclassified forest areas, accounting for 4,630 square kilometres, roughly 95 percent of the district’s territory, make NC Hills a veritable nightmare for the security forces dealing with the militants. The utter lack of policing facilities has only compounded the challenges posed by nature. While Assam has a police to population ratio of 181 per 100,000 (the corresponding national average is 122) and a police density (policemen per 100 square kilometres) of 66.4 (India: 42.4), the NC Hills District has 175 police personnel per 100,000 population but, crucially, less than seven police personnel per 100 square kilometres. Incidentally, Assam, among the eight northeastern states, has the worst police population ratio in the region.
The entire district is administered by only four police stations and seven ‘non-sanctioned’ police outposts. Three of these police stations (Haflong, Maibong and Mahur) are located in the lower half of the district within a 53 kilometre radius. The fourth police station at Umrangso is in the northwestern part, 93 kilometres from Haflong. Vast stretches of the District’s territory thus remain entirely unpoliced, serving as free hunting grounds for the militants. Village Defence Parties function in about 400 of the district’s 552 villages. However, little resistance is expected to be put up by these groups of unarmed villagers against militants brandishing an arsenal of sophisticated weapons.
Crucially, there is no police presence along NC Hills’ eastern border with both Manipur and Nagaland, allowing militants from either side several points of ingress and egress. The border outposts along the borders were withdrawn in 1994 vide a State Government order. For the militants, exiting westwards to Meghalaya and southwards to the Cachar district are also viable options. Intelligence sources indicated that the BW chief Jewel Garlossa could be hiding with his top lieutenants in the Meghalaya capital Shillong, after the June 4 incident. Official sources indicate that the Assam Government is considering a proposal to establish at least five or six new police stations in the district. Three battalions (about 3,000 personnel) of the Army and six companies (about 600 personnel) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) are also engaged in counter-militancy operations in the district. However, since, as a matter of practice, operations of all the three forces are limited to the same areas where the District Police is present, and are complementary to each other, the presence of Army and CRPF, in spite of their experience and proven superior capability, adds little to the area domination capabilities across the district. Achievements in the operations, thus, remain modest.
Militancy, on the other hand, appears to suffer from no such shortcomings. The BW, formed in March 2003, is led by the erstwhile leader of the Dima Halim Daogah (DHD), which entered into an official ceasefire with the Government in January 2003. With a cadre-strength of about 300 militants, 100 of whom are believed to be armed with AK series rifles and a handful of Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launchers, the BW has been responsible for a majority of the militancy related activities in the district. About 300 DHD cadres, who are lodged in four designated camps following the ceasefire, have also often been found to have moved out of the camps to engage in extortion.
The BW, whose strength lies in the legacy it inherited from the DHD, has been courted by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland- Isak- Muivah (NSCN-IM), operating in the neighbouring state of Nagaland. Reports indicate that in exchange for a share of its funds, the Naga outfit trains and arms BW cadres. NSCN-IM facilities in Nagaland have also been used by the BW cadres during security force raids in NC Hills. Apart from the flow of finances, links with the BW help the NSCN-IM maintain a crucial level of influence in the district, which forms a part of its Greater Nagaland (Nagalim) project.
Security force operations have achieved some results against the outfit. On May 10, Black Widow militants were killed and 18 others injured in a gun battle with the security forces in the NC Hills district. A week prior to that, on May 3 Army personnel had neutralised a hideout of the outfit at Relai near Maibong and arrested one Black Widow cadre and a suspected female militant. The hideout had logistic support items, rations and many bunkers. On April 10, a Black Widow militant was killed in an encounter with the security forces in Doyangbra. On March 22, the ‘deputy commander-in-chief’ of the Black Widow, Franky Dimasa, was arrested by the Guwahati Police from Fatasil Ambari area. He was arrested on the basis of the confessional statement of Daniel Garlosa, ‘area commander’ of the BW, who had been arrested on March 19 from Guwahati city where he had arrived from Dimapur in Nagaland travelling in the Brahmaputra Mail. However, it is clear that such achievements by the security forces have had little impact on the operational capacities of the outfit.
The greatest advantage for militancy in NC Hills remains its localised nature. While, on several occasions, both the DHD and the BW cadres have clashed with each other and also with outfits operating in neighbouring areas, their activities have largely been restricted to the limits of three contiguous districts of NC Hills, Karbi Anglong and Cachar. The dominant militant outfits operating in Assam, including the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), too, do not operate in NC Hills. As a result, counter-insurgency operations in the district, seen to be directed against a few hundred militants, in the absence of any larger repercussions on the security of Assam, are characterised by a certain measure of tedium and indifference, unless aggravated by a ‘major’ incident. Moreover, there exists differences between the Army and the Police, with the former being accused by the Police of conducting its own operations without informing the latter.
All major militant violence has led to the talk of political nexus with militancy. This time too Dispur accused the local Autonomous Council politicians of funding the militants and vowed to institute a probe. Local sources in Haflong, however, accuse the Tarun Gogoi government of neglecting the district. The North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) Chief Executive Member (CEM) Depulal Hojai has said that for the state government peace in NC Hills is a low priority and hence, it had chosen to neglect the ceasefire offer of the outfit in March 2008. The outfit had called for a unilateral ceasefire on March 25 but called it off after 12 of their own men were allegedly killed by the Army personnel.
Politicking continues to neglect the ground realities of security in the state. Amidst the fire fighting measures, the State has chosen to consistently neglect the demands of the local police, who complain of an absolute lack of intelligence on the militants and the problems of operating in a vacuum. With little help, apart from the customary deployment of additional force, coming from the powers that be, the war on militancy in this remote and neglected corner of the country remains un-winnable.
Incidents involving the Black Widow in 2008 include the following:
• May 16: Three suspected BW militants shot dead the president of the apex body of Bete tribe in the NC Hills, J T Roya Ngamlai, at his residence in Phiangpui village.
• May 15: Suspected BW militants hijacked five cement-laden trucks and subsequently killed the five drivers and their five helpers near Krumgminglangsu village in the NC Hills district.
• BW militants fired on a two-coach patrol train between the Mupa and Kalachand stations in the NC Hills district. The driver of the train, N.N. Bora, was killed while three others were injured in the incident.
• May 12: Two persons were killed and another injured when suspected BW militants attacked railway workers engaged in a construction site at Migrendisa under Haflong police station in the NC Hills district.
• May 11: A group of 10 armed BW militants shot dead eight labourers engaged in the construction of a railway quarters at Thoibasti in the NC Hills district.
• May 10: 12 BW militants were killed and 18 others injured in a gun battle with the security forces in the NC Hills district.
• March 24: Three persons, including two railway employees Keshab Malakar and Masab Palai, were killed and two others wounded when the BW militants attacked Harangajao railway station in the NC Hills district. Militants hurled two grenades and emptied at least 90 shells of AK-47 andINSAS rifle ammunition during the attack.
• February 22: Five people, including three policemen, were injured in an attack by the BW militants in the NC Hills district. The militants ambushed a convoy of police personnel near Hatikhali under Langting police station injuring three of them and two other passers-by.
• February 19: Five employees of a private cement factory, Vinay Cements, were killed while another was injured in an attack by the BW militants in the NC Hills district.
• February 11: Four persons, including an Assam Police Battalion soldier, were killed and two more injured when BW militants ambushed a convoy of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd officials 20-km from Umrangsu in the NC Hills district.
• January 31: Suspected BW militants shot dead Bikrom Khakra, a senior leader of the Autonomous State Demand Committee, after abducting him at Jirikinding bazaar in Hamren subdivision of Karbi Anglong district. Four other persons, identified as Pranab Bey Sarkar, Swapan Malakar, Sontosh Dam and Basa Timung, who were with Khakra, were also abducted. Militants severely assaulted Sarkar and Malakar and took Dam and Timung with them. Villagers later recovered Khakra’s body and rescued Sarkar and Malakar.
• January 14: Five persons, two security force personnel and three civilians were killed and another person was injured by the BW militants in Umrangsu town of the NC Hills district.
