Insurgency in Indias

Though GNLA is yet to come for talks, but the outfit’s strength has been reduced. Meghalaya Police is upbeat with its sustained operation – Hillstorm 3, which has yielded results and is hopeful that they would be able to contain insurgency. In the backdrop of a resurgent peace era, which is prevailing in Garo Hills with stray incidents of violence.

At the same time, the British government also supported the Christian missionaries to move in and establish schools, hospitals and churches. The missionaries introduced remarkable changes in the north-eastern society and modern progressive ideas prevailed amongst the tribal youth. It also helped the Britishers in keeping the nationalist (pro-independence) influence out of the tribal areas. He also added that the increase in militant activities had adversely affected trade, commerce and economic development. Urging people to oppose all forms of terrorism and violence, Laloo emphasized on peace and harmony 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.

While China aids these destabilizing insurgencies, India’s Quad partners—Japan, Australia, and the United States—share a strategic interest in stability in India’s northeast so that the country can shift focus to providing greater regional security. The security situation in some of the north-eastern states has remained complex for a long time because of a number of militant outfits and their diverse demands. Various political parties of the hill’s tribal population began to feel alienated from Assamese and Bengali residents of the plains. The tribals were afraid of  losing their identity and being assimilated by the policy of Assamization in government jobs and other professions, like doctors, traders, etc.
In 2020, there have been 05 insurgency related incidents with no kidnapping and abduction in the State with no casualties of civilian and SFs personnel in violent incidents. The headquarters of Eastern Air Command , Director General Assam Rifles , 101 Communication Area and Assam Regimental Centre are located in the spectacular hill station and the state capital Shillong, also called as the ‘Switzerland of the East'. "Let us hope that India becomes the only ‘geo-cultural country’ in the world as the rest of the world is ‘geopolitical’ as recently reiterated by Union Home Minister Shah. But this could be a distant dream with hyper-religious polarisation." It aims to provide connectivity to unserved and underserved Airports within the country and to promote regional connectivity by making the airfare affordable through Viability Gap Funding .

On January 6, the NHRC found that Chhattisgarh police personnel in Bijapur District raped 16 tribal women in 2015. The NHRC directed state authorities to compensate the victims and initiate action against the perpetrators. The NHRC also began an investigation into details of the sexual assault allegations, which the victims reported in January 2016. There was no update on the status of the investigation or delivery of compensation by year’s end. Throughout the year there were reports by media organizations and academic institutions of corporations’ abuses against tea workers, including violations of the law.
During its three year existence, a series of bank robberies were jointly undertaken by ALMA and NSCN (I-M) in Garo Hills. It is learnt that  seventy per cent of the booty collected from such joint operations used to go to NSCN (I-M) as charge for its services and for arms and ammunition while the remaining thirty per cent was left with the ALMA as rewards for its local cover. Following the disillusionment with the hard underground life, the ALMA activists surrendered en masse in 1994.
Later on, NEFA was named Arunachal Pradesh and granted the status of a separate state in 1987. While NEFA was developing comfortably and in harmony with the rest of the country, problems developed in other tribal areas which were part of Assam administratively. There was a virtual absence of any political, cultural, social, geographical, religious or business contact of the tribals in the North-east with the rest of India.

With this background, the paper attempts to analyse the causes and consequences of autonomy demands  asserted by different communities/tribes within the state. Meghalaya, a State that remained relatively peaceful while insurgency was peaking across India's Northeast, has now emerged as the second most violent province in the region, after Assam. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal data base, there have been a total of 69 insurgency-related fatalities in 2014 , including 20 civilians, four Security Force personnel, and 45 terrorists. These numbers acquire greater significance in view of the fact that Meghalaya has a population of just over 2.65 million .
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.

Watch this episode of ‘Decoded’ to understand how this incident brought to light the rise in insurgency in a once ‘model state’ of northeast India. One of the most lasting images from Independence Day of 2021 was when supporters of the banned militant outfit HNLC snatched arms from the police and took over a Shillong town waving black flags after the death of the HNLC leader Cherishterfield Thangkhiew in Meghalaya. The HNLC was active through the early 2000s, calling forbandhsand boycotts on Independence Day, and consolidating their finances through extortion and illegal drug trade. On 24 September 2014, the heads of the ANVC rebel group and the ANVC Rimpu Marak splinter faction signed a peace accord with the government of Meghalaya.
“To boost the confidence of the people of Manipur and to provide the healing touch, the All India Trinamool Congress demands that an all-party delegation be sent to Manipur, in the next one week. The message till now from the Union Government has been one of ignoring; that needs to change to healing, caring, restoring peace and harmony,” the statement said. Violations of wage, overtime, and occupational safety and health standards were common in the informal sector (industries and/or establishments that do not fall under the purview of the Factories Act), which employed an estimated 90 percent of the workforce. Small, low-technology factories frequently exposed workers to hazardous working conditions. Undocumented foreign workers did not receive basic occupational health and safety protections. In many instances workers could not remove themselves from situations that endangered health or safety without jeopardizing their employment.

The sustained operation (in 2015 alone there were 301 counterinsurgency operations) spearheaded by the Police forces resulted in significantly hampering the capabilities as well as the support infrastructure of the GNLA militants in the Garo Hills region. This view is further bolstered by the systematic rise in number of surrendered militants between 2014–16. The central and governments in all the northeastern states accelerated efforts towards economic, industrial and infrastructural development, education, health care and preserving and protecting tribal culture and way of living. Focus is on integration of different schemes like sanitation, panchayati raj, forest departments, minor irrigation an ideal ‘Gram Swaraj’ as advocated by Mahatma Gandhi. With economic and political stability, terrorists will get isolated and either perish or surrender and gradually, AFPSA will be removed and region fully integrates with the mainstream.
So far, the agreement is still in place, and the government is negotiating with the rebels over rehabilitation and economic aid  in exchange for disbanding. Nine people were injured — three of them critically — when Garo militants triggered a bomb blast on Saturday in Williamnagar, the district headquarters of East Garo Hills in Meghalaya, police said. With the Assembly elections due early this year, the northeastern state of Meghalaya is set to be a tough battleground for political parties in the region.