THE STATES

Striking at will

The recent militant attacks in Meghalaya and Tripura point to a clear programme to whip up parochial sentiments against "non-tribal outsiders".

KALYAN CHAUDHURI

INSURGENCY in the two northeastern States of Meghalaya and Tripura took a toll of 32 lives in mid-August. In order to scuttle the Independence Day celebrations, guerilla outfits in Meghalaya massacred 12 civilians on August 13. On August 20 members of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) ambushed a truck carrying jawans of the Tripura State Rifles from the hill town of Takarjala, about 35 km from Agartala, killing 20 of them on the spot and injuring five.

The militants, who had positioned themselves behind hillocks on both sides of the road, hurled grenades at the truck and brought it to a halt. The security personnel could do little as another group of militants unleashed a volley of gunfire from the paddyfields on either side. The militants took away 19 self-loading rifles, a light machine gun and a large quantity of ammunition from the truck. Senior police officials said they suspected that self-styled NLFT commander Kishore alias Lara Debbarma had led the ambush.

AP
The bodies of jawans of the Tripura State Rifles, after the ambush by insurgents on August 20.

The previous night, NLFT militants gunned down the chairman of the Companypara village development committee in Dhalai district. According to the police, a group of 10 rebels, led by 'commander' Pradip Debbarma, stormed the house of Chakla Tripura, a member of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), the political wing of the outlawed NLFT, and shot him. He was killed for not complying with the NLFT's demand for a donation from the village development committee.

The NLFT is not the only militant outfit that the security forces in Tripura have to contend with. The All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) has demonstrated on several occasions that it is a potent force in the insurgency-ravaged hilly interiors of the State. The ethnic cleansing programme aimed to make Tripura exclusive to the tribal Tripuris has for long been the most deplorable aspect of the militancy in the State. Less than three months ago, ATTF members killed 11 Bengalis in the northern parts of Tripura. On January 13, they massacred 16 Bengalis. Frequent attacks on Bengalis by the NLFT and the ATTF, which demand a "sovereign Tripura", have created an alarming situation.

The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in a statement issued on August 20 that the attack on the jawans was made to create panic as the militants were being isolated, owing to resistance by the people and effective measures by the security forces.

The statement alleged that the IPFT, which took control of Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) two and half years ago with the assistance of the NLFT, which terrorised non-tribal voters into staying away from the polling stations, also supported the ethnic cleansing. On the political front, the State Congress(I) is an ally of the IPFT.

The growth of extremism in the sensitive State of Tripura has a long and bitter history. The emergence of the CPI(M) as a major political force in the State had put a damper on the growth of such extremism. But the situation has evidently changed yet again, and the manner in which ethnic and parochial sentiments are being whipped up against "non-tribal outsiders" signifies a return to the vicious pattern that dominated the State's landscape during Congress(I) rule in the 1980s. In order to counter the rise of the CPI(M), the Congress(I) built links with some divisive tribal outfits.

Alliances with established political parties helped these tribal groups gain the kind of legitimacy that they did not deserve. The IPFT is only one of the several groups in Tripura that are in active politics while trying to establish their dominance by openly resorting to violence. The IPFT, which tied up with the Congress(I) for the Lok Sabha byelections in February this year, is using every weapon to determine the course of politics in the State.

GOING by the nature and method of insurgency operations in Meghalaya, it is suspected that the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) had a hand in the killing of the non-tribal civilians on August 13 in West Garo Hills. The victims were travelling in a truck to a weekly market. The truck came under attack at a desolate spot near Tikrikilla, 4 km from the border outpost of Lakhipur in Assam's Golpara district. Meghalaya's Director-General of Police L. Sailo said that the attack could be the handiwork of ULFA and the NDFB.

Rattled by the incident, which was seen as the start of ritualistic blood-letting by militants in the run-up to Independence Day, the Meghalaya government requested the Centre to send more paramilitary forces. "The security of the public and the State is at stake," Meghalaya Home Minister Lotsing A. Sangma said in a fax message to the Centre. State intelligence sources said that the border areas of West Garo Hills had become a haven for militant outfits, including Meghalaya's underground Garo organisation, the Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC), the Nagaland-based National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isaac-Muivah) and the Assam-based NDFB and ULFA. Sailo ruled out the possibility of the ANVC's involvement in the August 13 attack, although the area is its stronghold. The site of the ambush is not far from the spot where ANVC militants gunned down the son of Meghalaya Forest Minister Manindra Rav on June 30.

Meanwhile, action squads of the Khasi insurgent group, the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), which is close to the underground NSCN(I-M), have stepped up their operations. The HNLC, which is fighting for Khasiland is an umbrella organisation of rebel groups that are active in Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. These smaller groups are used by the HNLC to extort money and acquire arms and ammunition.

The modus operandi of the HNLC came to light after the arrest of five members of the North East Red Army (NERA) in August 2000. The self-styled commander-in-chief of NERA, Ching Thang Khiew, who was among the arrested, confessed to having close links with HNLC rebels and to helping the outfit in collecting money. NERA has its operational base in Nongpoh district of Meghalaya. According to intelligence sources, the HNLC must have learnt the art of playing the role of "big brother" from its mentor, the NSCN(I-M), and this has been paying it dividends.

The HNLC has modelled its operational structure on that of the NSCN(I-M). The sources said that the outfit had three commands - eastern, western and central. The eastern command covers Jainthia Hills district, the western command includes some parts of West Khasi Hills district, and the central command covers the capital, Shillong and its nearby areas. The Meghalaya police learnt about the organisation's command structure following the interrogation of some militants who were arrested recently.