Experience of Insurgency in India's North-East

The best way to integrate the North-east is to firstly restore law and order so that businesses are encouraged to invest. A Special Development package of Rs 500 crore each will also be provided by the Government of India and Government of Assam over a period of five years, for all-round development of NCHAC and Dimasa people residing in other parts of the State. The project attempts to question the formation of Khasi identity, challenges the aesthetics and language of mainstream commercial cinema and poses an alternative to the industrial model of revenue in favour of indigenous experimental filmmakers.

For example, in Nagaland, most fatalities are recorded as a result of the infighting between the two factions of the N.S.C.N., rather than from government forces. The goals of the anti-government insurgents are disruption, bullying, intimidation, and amassing of influence and power. They’ve succeeded in prompting a big and expensive police presence in Shillong, the capital, and causing ordinary citizens to comply with the episodic road closings, traffic stops, store closings and the like. The insurgents regularly shake down truck drivers for bribes and have apparently built a sufficient economic infrastructure to employ an unknown number of people.
Manipur presents a unique cultural, ethnic, linguistics and religious profile of India. Before the advent of Hinduism following the event of oath taking known as Nongkhrang Iruppa in 1724 A.D during the reign of King Pamheiba, the Meiteis professed their traditional Sanamahi religion. While the Sanamahi, trait prevailed over majority of the people in the valley of Manipur particularly among the Meitei.

Though incidents of abduction for ransom declined through 2017, they continued to cause fear among the people. Of the 31 people abducted in 2017, at least eight were released while fate of rest of the victims remain unknown. In the first 24 days of 2018, one incident of abduction has already been reported. The numbers of abductions are likely to be higher  than those reflected in this data, as many incidents are not reported. On January 11, 2018, Garo National Liberation Army ‘deputy commander in chief’ Matchallang M. Sangma aka Vietnam was killed in an encounter with Meghalaya Police at Bawe Duragre village in East Garo Hills District.
Widely distributed private satellite television provided competition for Doordarshan, the government-owned television network. There have been some accusations of political interference in the state-owned broadcasters. On August 15, the Chief Minister of Tripura, Manik Sarkar, alleged that Doordarshan and AIR refused to broadcast his Independence Day remarks. State governments banned the import or sale of some books due to material government censors deemed inflammatory or could provoke communal or religious tensions. Bala was arrested for posting a cartoon critical of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and other state government officials on his Facebook page. Bala’s cartoon suggested officials were preoccupied with enriching themselves rather than addressing the problems of citizens.

The abject backwardness of tribals living in scheduled areas starkly contrasts with the better socio-economic and political development of tribals living outside the scheduled areas and within mainstream society. No estimates exist regarding the fatalities in militancy-related violence during the pre-1992 period in the northeast. According to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, from 1992 to 2015 over 15,600 fatalities have been reported from each of these states, though the actual number is believed to be much more. Even as there were signs that there has been some improvement in the insurgency situation in the North East, with the level of violence declining and some insurgent groups showing signs of battle-fatigue, a sudden resurgence of insurgency in the region is turning out to be a cause of concern. Indeed, even the Indian home minister who had earlier expressed optimism about the security scenario in the North East had to admit during a press briefing on 6 July 2011 that the level of violence in the region has gone up. The former Chief Minister was speaking at the sidelines of the candlelight vigil organized by the party in solidarity with the bereaved family members of the 13 civilians who were killed by Indian Armed forces in Mon district of Nagaland.
Equally troubling for India’s pacification efforts is the fact that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party may be disaffecting the region’s minorities through religious discrimination—the Naga and Mizos are 90 percent Christian, and Tripura has a sizeable Muslim population. Critics claim the party has long relied on anti-Muslim rhetoric, but recent anti-Christian persecution has also increased. This follows the passage of an Indian citizenship law in 2019 that distinguishes Christians and Muslims from Indians who adhere to religions that originated in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government  has even blocked the charity founded by Mother Teresa from accepting foreign donations.
Since he was a titular head he was not authorised by the council of ministers and had no power to sign such an important document. During the 1980s and 1990s, ULFA launched a series of attacks on security forces, government officials, and civilians. He took support from Pakistan taking shelter, training, weapons, money and moral support from the neighbouring erstwhile East Pakistan for the separatist movement and was arrested and jailed by the Indian authorities several times. The secessionist war lasted for sixteen years till the Mizo Accord was signed in 1986; the MNF became the legitimate local political party and Laldenga the Chief Minister. Peace efforts have always been appreciated by the people, who are fed up with the chaos created by insurgency inspired by unrealistic romanticism. Presently, one ULFA faction is in talks with the Centre, while the Paresh Baruah-led ULFA has still been away from a dialogue.

Even as the debate about what makes for adequate representation goes on Nepram's group plods on with creating its proposal for the next NCERT meet, which may take place in 2015. "It's not a difficult task as we don't have to begin from scratch. There are quite a few good books only on the history of the region and along with the historians, we have to figure out what is important enough from each state to be given a national platform, " she says. Like so many other youth from the region Nepram went to college in the capital in the 1990s. She studied history at Delhi University but pursued it with some indignation - mostly because the history of her part of the country didn't manage even a chapter in her five years of study. "It surprised and even angered me. I confronted one of my professors, the renowned Sumit Sarkar, and he apologised on behalf of the entire fraternity for this miss, which was shocking to my mind, " she says. “Women are very powerful in the state and they are in the fore front when any crime happens in any parts of Manipur.
Three individuals died in separate incidents due to alleged torture while in Telangana state police custody. On April 7, Mohan Krishna died on the way to a hospital after he returned from Begumpet police station in Hyderabad, where he was detained and questioned in a case of alleged sexual harassment of a minor. On April 21, a man identified as “Ganesh” died on the way to a hospital after he  was interrogated in the Hayathnagar police station near Hyderabad for “suspicious movement” on the road. On March 18, Bhim Singh died in a Hyderabad police station after being detained for questioning following an altercation. In all these instances, police denied that detainees were tortured, citing previous illnesses as the cause of death. Sign up here to get the latest news, updates and special offers delivered directly to your inbox.

On the other hand, adding to the 16 militants killed in 2016, the SFs eliminated another six in 2017. The primary reason behind the SFs strengthened ground position was the successes achieved during the Counter Insurgency Operation Hill Storm, which continued from July 11, 2014, to September 2016, in which at least 75 militants were killed. While the government’s military options have achieved only minimal results, lack of development continues to alienate the people of the region further from the mainstream.
Stringent law and fast criminal justice system for quick disposal of insurgents attack cases. Due the porous border, the insurgents can easily flee to neighbouring countries such as Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh and also establish their underground insurgent bases. The party is going to launch the poll bugle in the state where it came to power for the first time in 2018 by ending the 25-year rule of CPI-led Left Front.

On April 24, Maoist insurgents attacked a convoy in Chhattisgarh, killing 25 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and critically injuring six. The instability in Meghalaya threatens to spill over the state’s 275-mile (443-km) porous border with Bangladesh. Terrorist groups regularly use Bangladesh as the transit point for arms for all of the northeastern Indian states. When Indian security forces turn up the heat against insurgent outfits, the insurgents take shelter in Bangladesh. Whatever understanding India had with the Burmese junta to crack down on northeastern guerrillas appears to have been vitiated by the Tatmadaw’s need for allies in its ongoing civil war. Despite stepped up Indian border enforcement efforts over the past several months, India’s northeast remains awash in guns and drugs originating from cross-border ethnic armed groups.
The United Wa State Army , with over twenty-five thousand troops, is the most powerful group in Burma and a Chinese proxy. While the UWSA observes a truce with the junta, it is simultaneously the largest conduit of arms to other ethnic militias fighting the Tatmadaw. In January 2020, Burma’s leader Min Aung Hlaing complained to Chinese President Xi Jinping that the UWSA had provided regime opponents with sophisticated Chinese weapons, including antiaircraft missiles that downed a government aircraft. Over the past several decades, India has successfully co-opted many of the guerrilla movements in the restive Seven Sisters northeastern states, surrounded by China, Burma, and Bangladesh.