14 killed, 20 injured in Assam attack

Police confirm role of banned militant outfit National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB)-Songbijit faction

At least 14 people were killed and 20 others injured on Friday when gunmen opened fire and lobbed grenades at a crowded market place in Kokrajhar district in Assam’s Bodoland. The site of the incident is Balajan, eight kilometres from Kokrajhar town. The police confirmed the role of Songbijit faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, a banned outfit, behind the killings. Some reports said the faction had denied any link with Friday’s incident.

According to local media, four to five gunmen arrived at the marketplace in an autorickshaw and opened fire at the crowd. They also lobbed grenades resulting in a few shops catching fire. Some said a few gunmen were in army fatigues (loose clothes worn by soldiers). The police soon sealed off the area and launched operations in which one gunman was killed. Later, army and paramilitary forces joined in and a massive operation is underway to trace the gunmen. L R Bishnoi, additional director general of Assam police, said the attacks were in retaliation to massive counter-insurgency operations launched against the outfit along Assam-Bhutan border.

However, today incident bears resemblance to ISIS-style attacks in recent days in Europe.

Assam chief minister, who was in New Delhi on an official visit, directed the Assam police to go all out to apprehend those behind the “cowardly and dastardly” attack. Top police officials have rushed to Kokrajhar. Senior minister in Sonowal cabinet, Himanta Biswa Sarma, too rushed to Kokrajhar after the attact. Sonowal returned to Assam in the evening.

“We could bring back peace in restive Bodoland. We have to ascertain who are the people behind this dastardly attack. This incident has given us a shock as we knew peace had returned to the area,” said Kiren Rijiju, Union minister of state for home affairs, in New Delhi.

Since 2014, Assam Bodoland, once a hotbed of insurgency, had been witnessing a relative peace. Bodo militant outfits have been waging a violent war against the Indian state since the 1980s, demanding a sovereign Bodo homeland.

In 2003, one of the two Bodo militant outfits – Bodo Liberation Tigers (the other being NDFB) – had surrendered and signed the historic Bodo Accord with the Centre that paved the way for the formation of the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. The surrendered members of the Bodo Liberation Tigers formed the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), the political party which has been in power in the Bodoland Territorial Council since its formation. The four Bodo tribe-inhabited districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Udalguri and Baksa form the present-day Bodoland and are called the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts.

However, even with the signing of the Bodo Accord, the demand for a separate Bodo homeland did not end and neither did the armed struggle. The other militant outfit, NDFB, continued with its violent struggle and later split into three factions. The two factions – NDFB (Progressive) and NDFB (Ranjan Daimary) – are currently engaged in ‘peace talks’ with the Centre. The Songbijit faction, or NDFB (S), is a breakaway faction of NDFB (R) and was formed in 2012 when NDFB (R) too chose the path of dialogue, as did NDFB (P) two years before it.

The Assam government has announced Rs 5 lakh each as ex-gratia to the next of kin of those killed, Rs 1 lakh to the seriously injured and Rs 20,000 to those who sustained minor injuries.