The Hindu – Bodoland Muslims might turn ‘militant,’ warns minorities panel

Warning sounded by the National Commission for Minorities in its report

Mohammad Ali

New Delhi, 16 August 2012. There is a possibility that Muslims in the Bodo districts of Assam will turn “militant,” influenced by jihadi outfits from across India, in case their security is not ensured by the State government. This warning was sounded by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) in its report on the recent communal violence in Assam and has been communicated to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. The report was prepared after it visited the conflict-torn districts in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) and Dhubri district in Assam.

The NCM delegation, which included Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed and NCM member K.N. Daruwalla, visited Kokrajhar, Gossaigaon, Dhubri and Bilasipara in July. Its report said the cause of the riot originated from the conflict between the Bodos and the resident Muslims of BTAD, and not between Bangladeshi migrants and the Bodos, even though it said infiltration from Bangladesh did take place throughout the year.

“The conflict this time as far as we could see was not between some exodus of Bangladeshi immigrants and the Bodos but between the Bodos and the resident Muslims of the BTAD.”

“The conflict was unequal because the Bodos had leftover arms from the Bodo Liberation Tigers [AK 47 etc]. The Muslims are very poorly armed in comparison,” the minority panel report said, with a warning about the potential jihadi influence on the Muslim population in Bodoland.

“There can be grave danger in future in case militant jihadi outfits from the rest of the country start supplying lethal weapons in this area,” it said.

The panel has also recommended the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the major incidents of violence during the riots in the State as “this will restore confidence in the justice delivery system.”

It has also called for a “serious and detailed dialogue” between the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Assam government, and the Bodoland Territorial Council. Such an interaction, it said, was “absolutely essential.” The report also observed that the Bodos think that “driving out other ethnic people’’ was in their interest and that is why the NCM delegation told the Chief Minister that “Bodos need to be told firmly that they cannot under any circumstances engineer a mass exodus of the non-Bodos and that they would never get statehood this way.”

“Be forceful”

Accusing the administration of failing to stop the first round of violent clashes between Muslims and Bodos in the BTAD areas, the delegation told the Chief Minister to instruct the police to be “more forceful with both Bodos and Muslim criminals.”

“We were also left with the distinct impression that the lower rungs of the police were afraid of taking action against the Bodos, possibly because of the armaments they possessed and the fact that they ruled the area,” observed the delegation.

Conditions “pathetic”

While visiting the camps of the Bodo and Muslim victims who fled after their homes were gutted down and looted by arsonists, the delegation expressed concern at the “pathetic condition of the camps where Muslims were housed’’ and noted that overcrowding was a major problem.

Describing the condition at the Grahampur high school camp in Gossaigaon district, the report said: “This was a horrendous camp with 6,569 inmates from 31 villages.”

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article3776902.ece

The Asian Age – Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to consider ‘corrective’ steps on Indo-Bangla border

Rajnish Sharma, Asian Age Correspondent

New Delhi, 11 August 2012. The Cabinet Committee on Security will soon discuss threadbare security along the India-Bangladesh border and suggest “corrective measures, particularly in areas of strategic importance like border fencing, checking infiltration and smuggling”.

Top government sources said the comprehensive security review at the CCS level was necessitated by the recent ethnic violence in Assam, whose roots lie in cross-border infiltration. The government, sources added, attached a lot of importance to the violence in Assam and was keen to ensure there was no repeat of such incidents in future. This is more so as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam.

“It is an easy excuse to say Assam has a history of such ethnic clashes. But this time we need to get to the root cause and fix it. This review is a great opportunity for security agencies as it will go beyond Assam and look at security hazards in the entire Northeast due to the highly porous border,” a senior government official said.

While work on the 3,400-km fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh border is said to be progressing at a “satisfactory pace”, certain patches are still an area of concern. Sources claim that a stretch of at least 40 km at different places in Assam is still not fenced. In addition, there are riverine areas which are not patrolled properly. Floodlighting along the fencing also has to be expedited, officials said.

After the recent ethnic clashes, the intelligence agencies have told the government there was an “erratic increase” in population in some Assam districts, including Kokrajhar and Dhubri, among the areas worst affected by rioting.

http://www.asianage.com/india/ccs-consider-corrective-steps-indo-bangla-border-832

The Asian Age – Sonia Gandhi leads UPA attack on L K Advani

Asian Age Correspondent

New Delhi, 9 August 2012. In a rare show of combativeness, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday led the UPA attack in the Lok Sabha against senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, who earlier described UPA-2 as “illegitimate”.

Mr Advani, initiating the debate on the adjournment motion on the Assam ethnic violence, said: “In 2004, the UPA-1 was formed after winning the election, so it was a legitimate government. But UPA-2 is an illegitimate government.” At this, UPA members were on their feet demanding an apology from Mr Advani.

A visibly angry Mrs Gandhi led the protest, asking UPA MPs to stand up and prevent Mr Advani from continuing. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also described Mr Advani’s remark as “disgraceful and unfortunate”.

Mr Advani later clarified he was referring to the contentious July 2008 confidence vote in the Lok Sabha, which the UPA government won.

The BJP, reacting to the Prime Minister’s observation, asked if the “cash-for vote scam was graceful”? The stage now appears set for a fresh bout of confrontation between the ruling and Opposition benches.

Initiating the debate on the Assam violence, Mr Advani called the UPA-2 government “illegitimate”, leading to vociferous protests which forced Speaker Meira Kumar to adjourn the House for a second time. The Speaker also asked Mr Advani to withdraw his remark, upon which the veteran BJP leader said he was referring to the 2008 trust vote and not the 2009 polls.

Mr Advani, accusing the government of failing to control the situation in Assam, said it should not be regarded as ethnic violence and that illegal Bangladeshi migrants, who posed a security threat to Assam and the rest of India, should be identified. Otherwise, he warned, the violence would continue.

http://www.asianage.com/india/sonia-leads-upa-attack-advani-142

BBC News – India death toll rises to 32 in Assam violence

Wednesday 25 July 2012. The death toll in the ethnic violence in India’s Assam state has risen to 32, authorities say.

More than 170,000 people have fled their homes after fighting between indigenous tribespeople and Muslim settlers in Kokrajhar and Chirang.

Security forces have been given shoot on sight orders and a curfew has been imposed in the troubled areas.

There have been tensions between indigenous groups and Muslim Bengali migrants in Assam for many years.

The army has been deployed to bring the situation under control, authorities said.

Railway links between Assam and the rest of the country have been disrupted after local people threw stones at an express train travelling through the area, and damaged four coaches, reports say.

Police say that the clashes began when unidentified men killed four youths on Friday night in Kokrajhar district, an area dominated by the Bodo tribe.

They say that armed Bodos attacked Muslims in retaliation, suspecting they were behind the killings.

Soon afterwards unidentified groups set houses, schools, and vehicles ablaze, police said, firing indiscriminately from automatic weapons in populated areas.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-18978740