Indian army hunts rebels after Assam killing spree
Source: Reuters
(Updates with rebels killed, captured, analyst comment) By Biswajyoti Das DINJAN, India, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Thousands of combat troops scoured the mountains and jungles of India's restive northeast on Thursday to hunt down separatist rebels, blamed for killing dozens of migrant workers in the past week. The crackdown, which started at midnight on Wednesday, was spread across Assam and two other northeastern states, and focused on eliminating rebels of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and destroying their training camps. Four rebels were killed and about a dozen captured in early operations that included helicopters dropping troops on forested mountains, the army said. "We are using all resources at our disposal in this operation ... we are going all out against the militants," said Major-General N.C. Marwah, a senior military commander at Dinjan, 570 km (360 miles) east of Guwahati, Assam's main city. Authorities say militants belonging to the ULFA, which is fighting for the liberation of tea- and oil-rich Assam, are responsible for killing 72 people since Friday, nearly all of them Hindi-speaking migrants from eastern India. Dozens have been wounded in the attacks, the worst strikes by rebels in the state since 2003. The attacks sparked panic among Hindi-speaking people, forcing thousands to flee the state in packed buses and trains. The rebel group, one of the more than half-a-dozen major insurgent outfits in India's isolated and ethnically diverse northeast, has not admitted responsibility for the killings. The group accuses New Delhi of exploiting Assam's resources while doing little to develop the state, and flooding it with non-Assamese people. "KILLING SPREE" On Thursday, troops in battle fatigue moved throughout Assam as well as neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Some moved on foot while others patrolled roads in armoured vehicles fitted with machine guns. Security officials say the ULFA has hideouts in mountainous Arunachal Pradesh and over the border in Myanmar. The army and border guards will also try to choke off ULFA's supply of arms through Meghalaya from neighbouring Bangladesh. Army officers on the ground say that the gloves are off. "If they are on the killing spree, we cannot sit idle. We also have to go on a killing spree," said a local military commander directing troops against the ULFA. Analysts say the ULFA's popularity has been diminishing among the indigenous Assamese over the past few years. "ULFA has, no doubt, carried out a heinous crime and it has lost its popularity," said Noni Gopal Mahanta of Guwahati University's Centre for Peace Studies. But he warned military force alone would not end the revolt as it could result in abuses and further alienate people. In September, the ULFA walked out of peace talks with New Delhi after the government called off a truce in August, saying the rebels had violated it. The army said the government's move to call off security operations against the ULFA before the truce was a mistake as the rebel group was being battered at the time. "Suspension of operations was a big mistake. They took advantage of the situation and regrouped," Marwah said. More than 20,000 people have been killed in the ULFA rebellion since 1979.
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