Trouble At The Margins in Assam

By Veronica Khangchian

The ‘United Democratic Liberation Army’ and its splinter groups have been indulging in violence in Assam and its adjoining areas over the past two years. But their free run may soon come to an end with security forces launching counter-insurgency operations that have secured significant success. Unless, of course, politics comes into play!

On August 19, security forces killed seven United Democratic Liberation Army militants at Gutguti Pathargenai forest under Ratabari Police Station in the Karimganj District of Assam, bringing this little known group into sharp focus. An Army soldier was also injured during the gunfight, while one UDLA cadre was arrested.

Earlier on May 16, 2011, security forces had arrested UDLA the ‘commander-in-chief’, identified as Nandaram Reang, and his bodyguard, Gajiram Reang, from the forest area of Kundanala in the Katlicherra Block of Hailakandi District. Further, on April 29, 2011, security forces  had arrested an UDLA militant from Channighat in Assam’s Cachar District.

On September 24, 2009, Police in the neighbouring Mizoram State had arrested the UDLA chairman, Dhainaram Reang, from Kolasib District in Mizoram, and handed him over to the Hailakandi District Police. He, however, managed to secure bail and later escaped into the Mizoram forests. The UDLA was led by Shishumoni Reang, brother of Dhainaram Reang, while he was in Police custody.

Formed sometime in 2008 by Dhainaram Reang, the UDLA has an estimated 50 to 60 cadres, drawn from both the Bru and Bengali Muslim community. The outfit primarily operates in Assam’s Southern Districts of Karimganj and Hailakandi — bordering Mizoram, Tripura and Bangladesh.

UDLA was formed when the United Liberation Front of Barak Valley came overground with the formal surrender of 305 of its cadres at the Indian Tea Association Cultural Complex in Guwahati on September 30, 2008. The ULFBV president Panchram Apeto led the surrendering cadres, mostly of them from the Reang tribe of Hailakandi and Karimganj Districts, ending an eight-year-old armed insurrection. Panchram had then claimed that Dhainaram had a hidden nexus with some Muslim militants. Denying this, an UDLA commander, Rajesh Reang, declared, on September 24, 2010, that his group has close links with Naga militants. He claimed that UDLA’s headquarters were in Bangladesh and that the outfit had been collecting money from various tea gardens in the Karimganj and Hailakandi Districts.

Later, on an unspecified date, a section of UDLA split and formed the United Democratic Liberation Front (Barak), led by one Danya Ram Reang, along with Lamboo Reang. As in the case of UDLA, UDLF(B) has also been brought under tremendous pressure by the security forces.

On April 29, 2011, security forces arrested an area commander of UDLF(B), Thaiboi Reang, from Kundanala village in Hailakandi District. Thaiboi Reang was involved in cases of abduction and extortion since the inception of the group. On July 28, 2011, security forces arrested a UDLF(B) militant from Katlicherra in Hailakandi District. On April 28, 2010, two cadres of the UDLF(B) were arrested from Alagapur in Hailakandi District, when they were trying to extort money in the Algapur market.

The UDLA split again when Atabur Rahman, once an accomplice of Dhainaram, formed his own outfit, the United Democratic Liberation Tigers, on December 3, 2009. The rift occurred reportedly because of soured relations between the Bru and the Muslim communities following incidents of UDLA cadres abducting a number of Muslims from Hailakandi District in 2009. Atabur, who vowed to protect the Muslims from Bru militants, was, however, killed on January 11, 2011, in Mizoram, either by rivals or the security forces, along with his cousin and accomplice, Eklasuddin. The UDLT, though, has been described as a group of dacoits and abductors.

Bru militancy started with the formation of the Bru National Liberation Front in 1996, following violent clashes between ethnic Mizos and Bru tribesmen in the Mamit District in Mizoram. The immediate cause of the conflict was the demand for an Autonomous District Council in the Bru-dominated areas of western Mizoram by the Bru National Union, a political organisation of Bru tribesmen that was formed in 1994. The Reang/Bru Democratic Convention Party, another Bru organisation, passed a resolution in this regard, subsequently provoking Mizo organisations like the Mizo Zirlai Pawl and Young Mizo Association to organise violent attacks in October 1997 on Bru settlements. The Mizo groups apprehended the geographical division of Mizoram. Following the ethnic-violence of 1997, some 35,000 Bru refugees fled Mizoram and took shelter in six relief camps at Kanchanpur in North Tripura, while a significant number fled to Assam. Bru militants have, thereafter, changed their demands to include the formation of a separate homeland in Karimganj and Hailakandi Districts of Assam.

The ULFBV, formed in 2002, was specifically created with the objective of creating a separate Bru homeland in the Karimganj and Hailakandi Districts of Assam. However, on April 26, 2011, the UDLA chairman stated that the group was contemplating surrender if the Government was ready to constitute a separate Autonomous Council for the Bru community.

Meanwhile, the repatriation of Bru refugees to Mizoram has emerged as a major concern. Repatriation started in May 2010, for the first time, and a total of 231 displaced Bru families consisting of 1,115 persons, returned to Mizoram. The second phase of repatriation occurred in November 2010, in which another 53 Bru families returned to Mizoram. The third phase began in April 2011 and continued till May, with more than 600 families restored to Mizoram. The fourth phase, which was to begin from June 7, 2011, failed to take off. The stalled repatriation process was reported likely to be resumed from September 15, 2011, but has not yet commenced.

Despite significant losses, UDLA and its splinter groups continue to operate and, over the past two years, UDLA alone has been involved in the killing of at least three civilians in separate incidents.

But the way the security forces have intensified operations and secured significant successes against most of the militant groups operating elsewhere in the State as well, as is evident by the decreasing fatalities, with both UDLA and UDLF-B under sustained fire, it is unlikely that these groups will retain their capacities for disruption and violence for long.

(The writer is a Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management.)