Militants Killed 195 Civilians in Assam

NEW DELHI: As many as 195 civilians and four police personnel were killed in Assam in the year 2014 despite the fact that the total number of active militant organisations has been reduced to only eight following several rebel groups accepting government’s offer for peace talks.

Senior Cabinet Minister Rakibul Hussain, while informing the Assam Assembly about this data, on Monday, also apprised the legislators of the fact that Rs 20 lakh are given as the next of the kin of police personnel killed by militants as a one-time grant along with providing government employment and other assistance to one of the family members of the slain police personnel. On the other, in case of civilian deaths, the next of kin is given up to Rs 5 lakh by the state government as ex-gratia and another amount of Rs 3 lakh is provided by the Central government under its Central Scheme for Assistance to Civilian Victims of Terrorist, Communal or Naxal Violence.

The eight active militant organisations in the state presently are ULFA (I), NDFB(S), KPLT, KLO, HuM, MULTA, CPI (Maoist) and JMB (Module).

Additionally, at least 13 militant groups declared Suspension of Operation last year and accepted proposal for peace dialogue and ceasefire. The groups incluse ULFA (pro-talks), NDFB (P), NDFB (RD) and AANLA.

Hussain also tabled the information about the attacks that were launched by the active militants. Around 6082 violent incidents have been perpetrated by these eight active outfits in the state since 1991 to present, of which ULFA has carried out highest 3632 incidents, followed by NDFB with 2231 incidents.

Further,as many as 2059 arms have been recovered from these eight outfits since 1991, of which 1376 belonged to ULFA and 561 to NDFB. However, no arms belonging to JMB (Module) have yet been recovered.

As far the details about the arrests go, a total of 19, 939 leaders and cadres of these eight outfits have been arrested since 1991 till date, with the ULFA accounting for the highest number (14982) of arrests, followed by NDFB’s 4059. No cadre or leader of HuM has been arrested yet.

Pertinently, among these eight active organizations, NDFB(S) has about 250-270 cadres, followed by ULFA (anti-talks) with 240 cadres and MULTA with 140 cadres. The remaining six outfits have cadre strength ranging from 70 to 20.