Insurgency in the North-East India
The Meghalaya government had formed a 10 company- strong counter-insurgency force, Special Force 10, in 2014 to fight the militants. Since then, it has neutralised several top insurgents in the region, including Garo National Liberation Army ’s self-proclaimed ‘commander-in-chief’ Sohan D Shira in February, 2018. Born Manoj Rabha in Assam’s Goalpara district, 50- year-old Dhrishti Rajkhowa alias Bura Dada is believed to have personally trained several top insurgents in the Garo Hills region in jungle warfare, besides providing several militant outfits with arms and ammunition in exchange for money. I too was lucky enough to pick PGDPM, MBA and MCA degrees through armed forces distant learning programmes.
Periodically, armed militants raid business establishments, threatening its owners who are mostly Marwaris and walking off with the loot. Many of them earlier used these insurgents to secure government and private contracts. Now as the businessmen are being asked to pay the insurgents regularly, it has begun to hurt. The Government has undertaken peace initiative along with counter insurgency operations in the State as well as areas bordering with Assam to check the violence in the State.
According to Human Rights Watch , cases of arbitrary arrest, torture, and forced confessions by security forces remained common. Police continued to be overworked, underpaid, and subjected to political pressure, in some cases contributing to corruption. The HRW 2017 India country report found that officials were rarely prosecuted for crimes committed because the law made it “difficult, if not impossible” to prosecute public officials. There was considerable public support for repeal of the AFSPA, particularly in areas that experienced a significant decrease in insurgent attacks.
The Union government, as a matter of policy, reimburses security-related expenditure incurred by the states. It also has an ongoing program for the modernization of the state police forces that sometimes possess weapons of lesser sophistication than the militants. Interestingly, in all of the northeastern states, the ratio of policemen per 10,000 people is far above the national average. In December 2021, a truck carrying coal miners on their way back from work was mistakenly ambushed by Indian security forces in Nagaland state, in northeastern India, along the border with Burma. Eight of the miners were killed, and another six civilians died in the following days amid protests and clashes with the military. The violence came less than a month after rebels ambushed an Indian paramilitary convoy in the neighboring state of Manipur, killing an army colonel and his entourage.
Authorities allegedly also used torture as a means to extort money or as summary punishment. According to human rights experts, the government continued to try individuals arrested and charged under the repealed Prevention of Terrorism Act and Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act. Under the repealed laws, authorities treated a confession made to a police officer as admissible evidence in court. The NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative noted in its 2016 report that of 186 complaints of human rights violations reported against the armed forces in states under the AFSPA, between 2012 and 2016, 49.5 percent were from the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The data supplied by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the RTI Act did not, however, indicate whether complaints were deemed to have merit.
Despite its dream of sectarian utopia, the group saw cracks due to its own ethnic differences, which then led to the breaking up of the parent body into two groups – the HNLC in 1992–1993 representing the Khasis and Jaintias, and the Achik Matgrik Liberation Army representing the Garos. The purpose of the movement had separatist tendencies at the inception — the creation of a separate homeland, or at least self-governaning territory for Khasis, Jaiñtias, and Garos. He said that now 60 per cent area of Assam, seven districts of Nagaland, 15 police stations in six districts of Manipur and Tripura and Meghalaya have become completely AFSPA-free, while in only one district of Arunachal Pradesh the AFSPA is yet to be lifted.
It is thus pertinent to examine whether conflict resolution initiatives need to be persevered with or should be jettisoned in favour of greater reliance on the force option. For several political and civil society groups in the state, it is has become imperative that such illegal migration be stopped or regulated to manageable levels, not only from Bangladesh but also from the Mankachar Circle in the Dhubri District of Assam. The mountainous terrain and the thick forest cover between Meghalaya and Bangladesh have also provided insurgents with an easy gateway in and out of India, and has allowed the smuggling of arms and narcotics to continue.
The IAF had no option but to bomb the MNA insurgents by fighter squadrons operating from Kumbhirgram and Jorhat. It is believed that Rajesh Pilot and Suresh Kalmadi took part in the bombing missions. In 2020, there has been a steady decrease in insurgency related incidents and there has been no civilian death in the State. Mostly, Meitei insurgency is active in the state that resulted in killing of 07 insurgents by the SFs, arrest of 259 insurgents and recovery of 92 weapons in the State in 2020.
There are inputs which suggest moral support of the Chinese to the north-east insurgent groups. He was active in the Garo Hills region and had aided severalother insurgent outfits. Meghalaya Director General ofPolice R Chandranathan on Thursday said the insurgency in thestate has come to an end with the surrender of banned ULFA outfits second-in-command Dhrishti Rajkhowa. There were three rounds of anti-outsiders (anti-Dhwakhar) movements punctuated by mob attacks. In 1987 while the rest of India was lost in cricket fever of the Reliance Cup, Shillong burnt for weeks. The parochial violence again returned in 1992 and around the same time the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council was born.
For three years before he fled, he says terrorists were calling him saying he needed to end his work with the police. When he refused, someone tried to throw acid on his child at school – that was when he decided to leave. Members of the insurgency have also accused Meghalaya’s top politicians of recruiting them to further their political aims, and many allegations have centered on Chief Minister Mukul Sangma. Before long, Saleng Sangma started to receive threatening text messages on his cell phone from an unknown number.
Meghalaya has faced insurgency since 1992 and has resulted in deaths of more than 700 people, of which about 245 people were killed between 2011–15 alone. All the insurgency problems that earlier prevailed in the entire northeast region were once originally the discontentment issues that brewed in the erstwhile Assam and carried and multiplied in all the numerous states created by dividing Assam. A close observation of the contemporary political situation in Tripura reveals the cobweb of insurgent activities and electoral politics. The relative backwardness of the tribals and the resultant tribal militancy in Tripura have been used profitably by the political forces for electoral gains.
For example, Garo National Liberation Army “commander-in-chief” Sohan D. Shira had ordered the closure of all dried fish markets in Williamnagar town in East Garo Hills District for non-payment of protection money the group had demanded. Other business owners, too, have received extortion notes but have refrained from giving any information to the police for fear of retribution from GNLA, said an analyst at the South Asia Terrorism Portal, who declined to be named due to security concerns. A week before the election, posters were pasted in Williamnagar that said, “Whoever votes Jonathan, this is gun and this is bullet,” with pictures of firearms and ammunition. During the investigation, police traced the posters to Deborah Marak, former Congress Party leader Tennydard Marak and certain GNLA leaders, Superintendent Marak said. Averting a major tragedy, Special Force-10 commandos on Tuesday recovered another Improvised Explosive Device left by the Garo National Liberation Army rebels in poll-bound Meghalaya's East Garo Hills district, police said. Krenilla Marak, the wife of Nationalist Congress Party candidate Jonathone N Sangma, who was killed in an IED blast last Sunday, said she will contest Meghalaya election from the Williamnagar constituency.
Some human rights organizations claimed these actions were sometimes used to target specific NGOs. Persons continued to be charged with posting offensive or derogatory material on social media. For example, the BJP filed charges against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for posting election-related material on Facebook.
In Shillong I usually ordered strong coffee, opened the day with a packaged chocolate bar, and waited until it was time for lunch. Meghalaya’s wild elephant herd, which the Ministry of Environment and Forests now numbers at over 1,800 animals, is growing so fast that splinter herds, made up of independent males and young adult females, regularly crash through villages and tear up fields. So elephants have taken charge of the forests and valleys, a trend celebrated by the state news media. At the end, the last half-kilometer, the driver turned left onto a choked boulevard and headed east against three lanes of oncoming traffic.
Periodically, armed militants raid business establishments, threatening its owners who are mostly Marwaris and walking off with the loot. Many of them earlier used these insurgents to secure government and private contracts. Now as the businessmen are being asked to pay the insurgents regularly, it has begun to hurt. The Government has undertaken peace initiative along with counter insurgency operations in the State as well as areas bordering with Assam to check the violence in the State.
According to Human Rights Watch , cases of arbitrary arrest, torture, and forced confessions by security forces remained common. Police continued to be overworked, underpaid, and subjected to political pressure, in some cases contributing to corruption. The HRW 2017 India country report found that officials were rarely prosecuted for crimes committed because the law made it “difficult, if not impossible” to prosecute public officials. There was considerable public support for repeal of the AFSPA, particularly in areas that experienced a significant decrease in insurgent attacks.
The Union government, as a matter of policy, reimburses security-related expenditure incurred by the states. It also has an ongoing program for the modernization of the state police forces that sometimes possess weapons of lesser sophistication than the militants. Interestingly, in all of the northeastern states, the ratio of policemen per 10,000 people is far above the national average. In December 2021, a truck carrying coal miners on their way back from work was mistakenly ambushed by Indian security forces in Nagaland state, in northeastern India, along the border with Burma. Eight of the miners were killed, and another six civilians died in the following days amid protests and clashes with the military. The violence came less than a month after rebels ambushed an Indian paramilitary convoy in the neighboring state of Manipur, killing an army colonel and his entourage.
Authorities allegedly also used torture as a means to extort money or as summary punishment. According to human rights experts, the government continued to try individuals arrested and charged under the repealed Prevention of Terrorism Act and Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act. Under the repealed laws, authorities treated a confession made to a police officer as admissible evidence in court. The NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative noted in its 2016 report that of 186 complaints of human rights violations reported against the armed forces in states under the AFSPA, between 2012 and 2016, 49.5 percent were from the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The data supplied by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the RTI Act did not, however, indicate whether complaints were deemed to have merit.
Despite its dream of sectarian utopia, the group saw cracks due to its own ethnic differences, which then led to the breaking up of the parent body into two groups – the HNLC in 1992–1993 representing the Khasis and Jaintias, and the Achik Matgrik Liberation Army representing the Garos. The purpose of the movement had separatist tendencies at the inception — the creation of a separate homeland, or at least self-governaning territory for Khasis, Jaiñtias, and Garos. He said that now 60 per cent area of Assam, seven districts of Nagaland, 15 police stations in six districts of Manipur and Tripura and Meghalaya have become completely AFSPA-free, while in only one district of Arunachal Pradesh the AFSPA is yet to be lifted.
It is thus pertinent to examine whether conflict resolution initiatives need to be persevered with or should be jettisoned in favour of greater reliance on the force option. For several political and civil society groups in the state, it is has become imperative that such illegal migration be stopped or regulated to manageable levels, not only from Bangladesh but also from the Mankachar Circle in the Dhubri District of Assam. The mountainous terrain and the thick forest cover between Meghalaya and Bangladesh have also provided insurgents with an easy gateway in and out of India, and has allowed the smuggling of arms and narcotics to continue.
The IAF had no option but to bomb the MNA insurgents by fighter squadrons operating from Kumbhirgram and Jorhat. It is believed that Rajesh Pilot and Suresh Kalmadi took part in the bombing missions. In 2020, there has been a steady decrease in insurgency related incidents and there has been no civilian death in the State. Mostly, Meitei insurgency is active in the state that resulted in killing of 07 insurgents by the SFs, arrest of 259 insurgents and recovery of 92 weapons in the State in 2020.
There are inputs which suggest moral support of the Chinese to the north-east insurgent groups. He was active in the Garo Hills region and had aided severalother insurgent outfits. Meghalaya Director General ofPolice R Chandranathan on Thursday said the insurgency in thestate has come to an end with the surrender of banned ULFA outfits second-in-command Dhrishti Rajkhowa. There were three rounds of anti-outsiders (anti-Dhwakhar) movements punctuated by mob attacks. In 1987 while the rest of India was lost in cricket fever of the Reliance Cup, Shillong burnt for weeks. The parochial violence again returned in 1992 and around the same time the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council was born.
For three years before he fled, he says terrorists were calling him saying he needed to end his work with the police. When he refused, someone tried to throw acid on his child at school – that was when he decided to leave. Members of the insurgency have also accused Meghalaya’s top politicians of recruiting them to further their political aims, and many allegations have centered on Chief Minister Mukul Sangma. Before long, Saleng Sangma started to receive threatening text messages on his cell phone from an unknown number.
Meghalaya has faced insurgency since 1992 and has resulted in deaths of more than 700 people, of which about 245 people were killed between 2011–15 alone. All the insurgency problems that earlier prevailed in the entire northeast region were once originally the discontentment issues that brewed in the erstwhile Assam and carried and multiplied in all the numerous states created by dividing Assam. A close observation of the contemporary political situation in Tripura reveals the cobweb of insurgent activities and electoral politics. The relative backwardness of the tribals and the resultant tribal militancy in Tripura have been used profitably by the political forces for electoral gains.
For example, Garo National Liberation Army “commander-in-chief” Sohan D. Shira had ordered the closure of all dried fish markets in Williamnagar town in East Garo Hills District for non-payment of protection money the group had demanded. Other business owners, too, have received extortion notes but have refrained from giving any information to the police for fear of retribution from GNLA, said an analyst at the South Asia Terrorism Portal, who declined to be named due to security concerns. A week before the election, posters were pasted in Williamnagar that said, “Whoever votes Jonathan, this is gun and this is bullet,” with pictures of firearms and ammunition. During the investigation, police traced the posters to Deborah Marak, former Congress Party leader Tennydard Marak and certain GNLA leaders, Superintendent Marak said. Averting a major tragedy, Special Force-10 commandos on Tuesday recovered another Improvised Explosive Device left by the Garo National Liberation Army rebels in poll-bound Meghalaya's East Garo Hills district, police said. Krenilla Marak, the wife of Nationalist Congress Party candidate Jonathone N Sangma, who was killed in an IED blast last Sunday, said she will contest Meghalaya election from the Williamnagar constituency.
Some human rights organizations claimed these actions were sometimes used to target specific NGOs. Persons continued to be charged with posting offensive or derogatory material on social media. For example, the BJP filed charges against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for posting election-related material on Facebook.
In Shillong I usually ordered strong coffee, opened the day with a packaged chocolate bar, and waited until it was time for lunch. Meghalaya’s wild elephant herd, which the Ministry of Environment and Forests now numbers at over 1,800 animals, is growing so fast that splinter herds, made up of independent males and young adult females, regularly crash through villages and tear up fields. So elephants have taken charge of the forests and valleys, a trend celebrated by the state news media. At the end, the last half-kilometer, the driver turned left onto a choked boulevard and headed east against three lanes of oncoming traffic.
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