Terror strike puts a question mark on N-E peace talks

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Security personnel look at a truck set ablaze by protesters during blockade on the highway at Senapati on Wednesday. PHOTO: PTI

SHORTLY AFTER the reports in media about China trying to unite Northeast terrorist groups and the entry of one in Assam to launch attacks around Independence Day, terrorists struck in Imphal.
On August 1, five persons, including two girl students, were killed and many were injured as a powerful bomb exploded at about 1.40 pm in front of a grocery shop and a barber’s shop, opposite Sangakpham Keithel.
The two girls, studying in Class 3 at Chingmeirong Primary School, were returning home when the bomb exploded, flinging their bodies, one of which was found inside the grocery store and the other in the barber shop. The barber and his son were also killed. Another man’s body was found in front of the shop. The impact of the blast was so powerful that it ripped and charred human flesh, pulverised some vehicles and reduced the place to scattered debris.
There were reports of this attack being a failed attempt by National Socialist Council of Nagaland/Nagalim (Issac-Muivah) group NSCN (I-M) at targeting members of the Autonomous District Council (ADC) housed in a nearby guest house complex and chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh and Union home minister P. Chidambaram are reported to have endorsed the same.
A press note from the state home department said, “Government of Manipur has received concrete and convincing evidence which establishes the direct involvement of NSCN (I-M) in the series of recent violent incidents which left several innocent civilians dead and many seriously injured in various parts.”
According to the home department, one Anthony, son of Bonkulung of Sadu Koireng killed in this blast was an active NSCN (I-M) cadre.
Apparently, the explosion occurred moments after some vehicles of ADC members went past the blast site.
The government stated that these acts of terror are quite clearly designed to thwart the democratic process taken up by the Manipur government to introduce democratic decentralisation by successfully conducting elections to the six district councils which had remained dormant for over two decades.
It may be recalled that last year, it was on this issue that All-Manipur Naga Students’ Union had caused a blockade of National Highway 39, Manipur’s main artery, which had extended to three months by Thuingaleng Muivah timing his visit to his hometown in Manipur after almost 40 years.
Almost all the schools located in the valley districts of Manipur staged protest demonstrations and rallies decrying the Sangakpham bomb attack. On Tidim Road, thousands of school students took out a joint protest rally.
One group which has been most vocal is the All-Manipur United Clubs’ Organisation (AMUCO), which, while listing a number of violent incidents allegedly involving the NSCN(I-M), including the recent bomb blast, accused both the Central and state governments of being soft towards this rebel group. Contending that inaction against the NSCN(I-M), in spite of its involvement in various incidents of violence clearly suggests indirect support of both the governments to it, AMUCO president K.T. Rahman demanded that effective measures be initiated to curb activities of the outfit in Manipur. Speaking to the media, he is reported to have stated that as the ongoing ceasefire between the Centre and the NSCN(I-M) does not cover Manipur, not only should the illegal activities of the outfit need to be dealt with according to law, but also that all its camps in the state should be shut down.
Rahman further stated that the ongoing peace parleys between the NSCN(I-M) and Centre have been reduced to a mockery as the outfit is still involved in acts of terrorism, highway extortion, destruction of public property and intimidation. Mentioning the Sangakpham blast, the killing of a couple in Lungphu village of Phungyar sub-division (Ukhrul) and slaying of security personnel of Phungyar AC MLA’s escort party as recent cases involving the terrorist group, he blamed the Manipur government by recounting a particular incident when weapons seized by state security forces near Pallel were returned to the outfit along with its apprehended cadres.
While asserting that the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and Manipur should be measured by the same yardstick and grimly noting the failure of the home minister to visit Manipur and assess the overall situation following the Sangakpham blast, Rahman commented that such an attitude demonstrated the Centre’s step-motherly treatment to the people of Manipur.
Chronicling a number of attacks by NSCN(I-M) since April this year, the home department said that the state government is seriously considering taking up the matter with the Central government to revoke the ceasefire with NSCN(I-M) due to these continuous and open acts of terrorism committed by it.
While violence by the Meitei terrorist groups in Manipur has been reported much since the arrest of United National Liberation Front’s R.K. Meghen, many of its cadres earlier in Bangladesh and now in Burma are being rallied by Chinese intelligence, there is no saying how and when they will strike again.
In Assam, as the pro-talk faction of United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa)’s seven-member team, led by its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, submitted the charter of demands prepared by the Sanmilito Jatiya Abhivartan (SJA) under the leadership of intellectual Hiren Gohain to ministry of home affairs, their anti-talks colleague Paresh Baruah is all set to keep Assam on the boil yet again.
The Ulfa’s bid to strike came to light when the Assam Rifles apprehended hardcore leader Rwittick Hazarika in Sonitpur district bordering Arunachal Pradesh recently. He confessed before the police that a group of hardcore Ulfa cadres have come down to Assam to strike at the instance of Paresh Baruah.
Hazarika, a “second lieutenant” in Ulfa’s 27 battalion, was arrested a day after the Union home ministry’s advisory to Assam to step up security in view of the Ulfa’s martyrs’ day on July 27.
The seven-member Ulfa team met home minister P. Chidambaram in the presence of Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, home secretary R.K. Singh and other senior officials.
The charter of demands that exchanged hands during the meeting will be the basis of dialogue with the Ulfa. Although the contents of the charter have not been disclosed, as earlier reported, the SJA charter demands constitutional amendments to give Assam, and thereby its people greater control over their own future by strengthening the state’s power to control the revenue, natural resources, and the planning process and ensure a secure demographic situation as well as accelerated and balanced development.
“If the government of India and the Ulfa honour the charter in letter and spirit and do not undersell it, we may look forward to untroubled peace, true development, and vigorous growth of democracy in the region,” said Gohain. The SJA noted that the present calm does not mean the return of peace.
One aspect of the charter about ensuring a secure demographic situation, ironically stands greatly compromised, thanks to the Ulfa, which during the stay of its top honchos in Bangladesh for almost two decades had actually aided and speeded up the illegal migration from Bangladesh, contradicting the very basis of its rise following the bloody Assam agitation of 1983.
This writer’s book, Assam Terrorism and the Demographic Challenge, elaborates on how ULFA became an effective tool of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence’s set-up (based in Bangladesh during Khaleda Zia’s tenure), pursuing its aim of inducting and settling illegal Bangladeshi migrants in various parts of Assam; of raising new madrasas and controlling old ones; trying to convert ethnic Assamese Muslims to fundamentalism; creating communal tension; circulating fake Indian currency; trafficking arms and narcotics; sabotaging installations and generally spreading terror.
Talks with terrorists are fine but must meaningfully lead to permanent eradication of violence by the group and must be undertaken after securing all its weapons and ammunition. In cases of both NSCN(I-M) and Ulfa, this has not been done. Besides, both these groups have factions, leaders or members already guilty of anti-India activities.
Both these groups are also involved in supplying arms to Naxal-Maoists. In the case of talks with the Ulfa, if Anup Chetia is going to be handed over by Bangladesh as part of the goodwill of Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League government, then the Centre may consider waiting till Paresh Baruah is caught and then hold talks purposefully.
Last but certainly not the least, what about Ulfa leaders and cadres guilty of heinous crimes against innocent people? If their mere “apologies” are accepted and that turns them into good mainstream citizens overnight , then we might as well free all murderers on death row.

Anil Bhat, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi