20 Eyes for an Eye - NDFB

Just when the law and order scene of Assam was showing signs of improvement, the fragile peace was broken when 24 people, mostly belonging to the Hindi-speaking community were killed by militants.
Moheswar Basumatary allegedly a cadre of the anti talk fraction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) was killed on the 8th of November by security forces and in the evening of the following day, the militant outfit avenged his death by killing 24 innocent people in a series of seven to eight coordinated attacks.
The militants used the time tested tactic of targeting soft targets to draw the attention of New Delhi. This attack was aimed at people who had stayed in Assam for generations. 
The anti talk NDFB faction has initiated retaliatory killing as its hit men targeted the districts of Sonitpur, Baska, Kokrajahar districts. The outfit had, on November 1st sent threat mails warning that it will kill 20 Indian civilians for every Bodo person killed.
These areas are believed to be stronghold of the outfit which has been running a parallel government in areas of Sonitpur district. Harassing the tea planters is a common practice adopted by the outfit to fill its coffers.
Among the slain were eight persons who were killed were Arunachal Pradesh government employees. They were pulled out from a bus and lined up and indiscriminately fired upon. These people were returning to the neighbouring state after the Diwali holidays.
This resulted in Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram visiting Assam for a couple of hours. This is the first time that the anti talk faction of the NDFB has launched such big attack on Hindi speaking people.
The Home Minister has asked the security forces engaged in counter insurgency operations to launch all out operations against the NDFB faction. He has asked the security forces to launch operations along the Assam - Arunachal Pradesh border areas which are used by the militants as hideouts.
The Home Minister had a discussion with Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi and senior officials of state police, intelligence, army, CRPF and Border Security Force (BSF) in Guwahati, Assam. The Assam government on its part has sought for additional security forces, around 25 companies of Central Para Military Forces (CPMF).
The Home Minister said that the jailed leader of the anti talk faction of the NDFB, Ranjan Daimary who is in judicial custody seems to be unwilling to control the criminal actions of his faction. “The central government condemns the action of the NDFB (anti talk) faction and warns the faction that the NDFB is an ‘unlawful association’ and will be dealt with firmly in accordance with law.”
The Home Minister added that another faction of the NDFB is formally in the process of engaging in talks with the government. The only way forward for these groups is talks. The Central government and the government of Assam will hold talks with any group or faction that abjures violence but will not entertain any group or faction that indulges in wanton criminal acts.
Chidambaram informed that security forces have been instructed to apprehend the leaders of the anti talk faction of the NDFB and the perpetrators of the crimes and to bring them to justice. They deserve exemplary punishment for their crimes.
According to the Home Minister, the NDFB is a group which is not satisfied with the creation of the BTC. It has put forward demands, some of which fall outside the purview of the Constitution of India. Recently, the NDFB has split into two factions and the anti-talk faction of the NDFB has claimed responsibility for the recent depredations.
The outlawed outfit has issued fresh warnings threatening retaliation if innocent Boro people are targeted by security forces.
The outfit’s Organising Secretary B Noison in a statement to media houses said, “The security forces in the name of NDFB operations have killed many innocent people. Any mistake or crime against the Bodos by the security forces or non-Bodo people living in Bodo-inhabited areas will not be tolerated.”
The statement added, “When one NDFB member is killed, hundreds come to join the organisation and as such the government should take a lesson from this and take the initiative to solve the Bodo issue.”
Noison added that on several occasions the outfit has warned about innocent killing but a massive number of killings is still underway. “The Government should learn a lesson from incidents, actions, serial train blasts etc, about how arrogant the NDFB organization is despite warnings and questions regarding the Gurkha regiment and Assam police killing an innocent farmer named Moheswar Basumatary on the 8th of November.”
The outfit stated, “After the arrest of our Chairman Ranjan Daimary, we remained quiet during which the security forces took advantage and killed or nabbed our cadre. Keeping quiet for some time should not be interpreted as a show of weakness but this may lead to violent incidents for which the government and security forces only will be responsible and to blame.”
Several cadre of the outfit have been killed recently in offensives launched by the security forces. Over 90 cadre of the outfit have been killed last year and about 70 have been killed this year so far. Sources in the intelligence said, “The anti talk faction is leaderless and suffering from frustration. Only 150 cadre of the outfit are active now. We have seen in the case of ULFA that when its strength started dwindling it took to senseless killing of targeting brick kiln workers and daily wage earners. The same is the case with anti talk NDFB”
Sources added, “See those people killed in this attack, several of them are daily wage earners and one of the victims was a 65 year old woman. How much strength and ammunition does one require to kill such people? These attacks took place along the inter state border areas and in a majority of the attacks, the attackers came in small groups of two or three members. This is a sign that the outfit is crumbling under pressure from security forces.”

Sunaina