Killing people to get their job

[Shivakumar]

in.news.yahoo. com/070821/48/6jqxp.html

Three days and a death toll of at least 30 and counting in Assam's Karbi Anglong district. The brutal attacks on migrant Bihari workers by a fragmented and little-known militant group indicate one trend above all: ULFA's commander-in-chief, Paresh Barua, has mastered the business of political violence. The recent attacks are the most dangerous example of outsourcing terror in the Northeast. They also show Barua's understanding of the region's complicated ethnic equations.

On paper, the continuing strikes were carried out by the Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF), which comprises about 70 men who split from the United Peoples' Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) in 2004 after it began talks with the government. The KLNLF, apart from its hardline no-negotiations stand, is known for little else among the intelligence community except extortion notices in Assam's central Karbi Anglong Hills. Till recently, guerilla-style raids of 20 to 30 men with AK-56s, as intelligence sources confirm, were not their statement or line of work. It was, in fact, that of their backers.

Since the ULFA's first mass attack on Biharis in late 2003, the militant group has launched three major waves against migrant workers in the Brahmaputra Valley in the name of protecting regional economic interests. Attacks earlier this year saw more than 55 migrants killed. However, recent developments, say analysts, have made it difficult for Barua's men to justify their actions, particularly after the peace process broke down and the ULFA-nominated Peoples' Consultative Group (PCG) failed to bring the group to the table. The ULFA now faces a need to regain credibility among the Assamese, but more importantly among the militant groups of the region, as a viable fighting group.

Barua must have realised that further mass attacks by his own group was not advisable at present. In a related development, the ULFA is known to have opened at least three transit camps in Karbi Anglong, and renewed its 'working relationship' with the KLNLF. Hence the AK-56s and Barua's apparent blessings to the KLNLF to carry forward the ULFA's mandate and strike in a big away against the very migrant community which it has targeted for years now. But the ULFA cannot be seen to be openly supporting the smaller outfit known for ethnic cleansing of Kukis, another hill tribe. This is because the Kukis have their own militant group with whom the ULFA has another 'working relationship'. Hence the ULFA treads carefully.


Which leads to the question: why does the ULFA hate the Biharis so much? The answer has little to do with the interests of local Assamese, Karbis or Bodos, and more to do with ULFA's backers in Bangladesh. The more Biharis leave Assam, the more menial jobs will be left vacant, since the locals would not do such jobs. These jobs would be taken over by migrant Bangladeshis in far greater number than at present.

Already we have lots of illegal Bangladeshi migrants. Now some of these started to kill Biharis to get their job. We should send then some strong message by eliminating such people.

Mr. Munshi, why not you create jobs for you people instead of killing innocents ?