Blasts Rock Assam

Three explosions rattled Assam on April 6, 2009, killing10 persons, including a 10-year-old girl and a woman, and injuring 62 others. The blasts sent security forces into a tizzy on the eve of the ‘foundation day’ of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), the suspect behind the terror act.

Notably, the explosions rocked the State a day ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s scheduled visit for campaign trail. The most powerful explosion occurred in the city where suspected ULFA militants detonated a powerful explosion at the busy Maligaon market area, killing seven 7 persons — three on the spot — and injuring 56 others.

Terrorism Menace Continues
This was the third serial blast in 2009, which reminds that the menace of terrorism continues unabated in the North-East. The five blasts in various parts of the state on Monday occurred on the eve of the Prime Minister’s election visit, which also reflects a sinister design.

In January 2009, five people were killed and 60 injured in three blasts set off hours before the Home Minister was to reach Guwahati. In March 2009, there was a blast minutes before the Union External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was to address an election rally.

The present serial blast also coincided with the 30th anniversary of the formation ofULFA, a terrorist group which has been fighting for Assam’s secession by resortingto violence, massacres, extortions and attacks on crude oil pipelines, trains andgovernment buildings and bomb blasts. ULFA, which is suspected to be behindall three incidents of bomb blasts in 2009, has changed contours — frominitially protesting against illegal migration from neighbouring Bangladesh withwhich Assam shares a 272-km border, to targeting fellow Indian settlers fromother parts of the country.

Beginning with the October 30, 2008, explosions in Guwahati and two other locations — collectively killing 91 people — terror has inaugurated a destructive phase in the largest State in the North-East. A pernicious partnership between the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) and the ULFA has announced itself. It is believed underlying the alliance is the realisation that there is no real strategic contradiction between the two groups. HuJI claims lower Assam as territory where the Mughals had made some inroads, and as a ‘Muslim region’ that should be united with Bangladesh; ULFA sees upper Assam as an ‘Ahomiya homeland’ that should be an independent country, free of India.

Security Lapse
Like in another context in 1962, the Congress has left Assam and the Assamese to their fate, singularly incapable of ensuring security. The ruling party is trapped by Muslim political managers, many of whom deliver the votes of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. The demographic character of Assam has been transformed; in a few years the State will cease to be the bastion of Indic culture, of the worship of the Devi of Kamakhaya, of the traditions of the great monk-philosopher Shankardeva.

The April 6 blasts carry a special menace as they occurred only few days before the general elections begin. If this is not bad enough, news reports also point to a pattern that is emerging — that terrorist violence has tended to coincide with the scheduled visit to the state of senior national leaders.

Terrorism menace in Assam cannot be effectively combated if insurgent elements are not dealt with in the northeastern region as a whole. Most of the groups in the region coordinate with one another. India is also required to establish a better operational rapport with Bangladesh to blunt the moves of terrorists. With the Awami League Government in place in Dhaka, the task should be less complicated than before.

Clearly, the Centre needs to pay more attention to this state and region where alienation of the people has turned into anger which is wantonly exploited by organisations like ULFA. The country cannot let it remain unattended.