Rebels involved in ethnic cleansing, says minister

Udalguri: Authorities in Assam said on Monday the violence over the weekend that killed 32 people and injured more than 100 was systematic ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), a rebel group fighting for an independent tribal homeland.

"The violence in the three districts of Darrang, Udalguri and Baksa was not due to clashes between the tribal Bodos and immigrant Muslims, but a planned ethnic cleansing by the NDFB to drive out all non-Bodos from the area," Assam government spokesman and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

"We have already arrested four NDFB cadres on Sunday with weapons who were involved in killing a woman and a child in Baksa district," he added.

There have been several incidents of arson overnight with panic-stricken villagers fleeing their homes.

"Miscreants set ablaze a cluster of homes in about three villages late Sunday, although there has been no fresh casualty," a police official said.

More than 600 homes have been burnt since last Friday, when clashes first broke out, and at least 60,000 people have fled their villages in an area controlled by the Bodo Territorial Council (BTC), a politico-administrative structure, formed after New Delhi signed a peace accord with the militant Bodoland Tiger Force (BLT) in 2003. The BLT is now a disbanded outfit with its former members now heading the BTC, an autonomous body.

Territorial supremacy

The former BLT and the NDFB are at war for territorial supremacy with bitter fratricidal clashes between them in the last four years claiming more than 100 lives. But the NDFB, currently in a ceasefire mode with New Delhi since 2005, has not given up its demand for an independent Bodo homeland with the Bodo community in a majority in the three violence-hit districts in northern Assam.

"This is not a clash between Hindus and immigrant Bangladeshi Muslims as projected, but a systematic cleansing by the NDFB as many of the people affected by the violence are genuine Assamese Muslims, Bengali Hindus, common Bodos, besides a few Adivasis [tea plantation workers] as well," the minister said.

The NDFB is a majority Christian outfit with the outfit's top leader Ranjan Daimary believed to be operating out of Bangladesh.

"We are investigating reports of the involvement of the NDFB in the clashes and if proved we shall be forced to call off the ceasefire," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said.

Key factor: Assam unrest, who is involved?

The ethnic Bodo tribespeople in northeastern Assam are clashing with the state's Muslim population, many of whom are immigrants from Bangladesh. The All Assam Students Union has been spearheading a campaign to stop illegal immigrants from getting jobs, and is putting pressure on the government to expel them.

Why are they clashing?

The Bodos feel they are being marginalised in their homeland by the influx of Muslims who comprise an estimated 40 per cent of the state's population and form a majority in some districts. The Bodos feel neglected and accuse the non-tribal majority of Assam of exploiting them.

Is this a new conflict?

No. There have been recurrent bouts of violence between Assamese tribespeople and Muslims for years.

In 1983, at least 2,000 people, mainly Bangladeshi immigrants, were killed in clashes in Assam. In response, the Indian government granted citizenship in 1985 to the millions of settlers from former East Pakistan who arrived before 1971. But thousands of others, who came after 1971, remained illegal.

Who is to blame?

The Bodos and the Hindu nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) blame the Congress-led government in Assam for not doing enough to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, and for not giving the Bodos adequate protection.

Local media reported that the BJP called the clashes a "conspiracy", saying that Muslims had raised Pakistani and Bangladeshi flags in Assam. Muslim groups have condemned the violence.