National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB)

While the third Bodo accord is a momentous development in the history of the Bodo conflict, caution must be exercised to ensure that it does not fall victim to the factional politics that undermined previous accords.

• Alex Waterman
• February 19, 2020
• Issue Brief

The Centre needs to focus on setting up mechanisms to ensure rehabilitation of displaced persons and surrendered militants as well as their participation in governance

• Sushil Kumar Sharma
• February 02, 2016
• Issue Brief

Returning for a third consecutive term the Tarun Gogoi government in Assam should now confront and resolve the sensitive Internal Security Challenges from the perspective of ‘peace talks’ as against the victims’ right to justice

• Kishalay Bhattacharjee
• May 16, 2011
• IDSA Comments

Complacency and not following procedures led to the ambush that killed eight BSF personnel in Assam.

• Kishalay Bhattacharjee
• March 16, 2011
• IDSA Comments

Although insurgency in several areas of the North-East region of India has declined, external manipulation and support to insurgency in Assam, the most populous State in the region, continues to be a problem.

Three States in the region, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim, are mostly unaffected by insurgency, while there has been substantial decline in insurgency in Tripura and Meghalaya. Thus, insurgencies in the region are largely confined to Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.

• M. Amarjeet Singh
• February 19, 2009
• IDSA Comments

Intense internal rivalry among Bodo insurgents has proved to be the biggest hurdle to peace in Bodo-dominated areas of Assam. Internal differences within the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), the only surviving Bodo insurgent group, have further widened, following the expulsion of its founder-president, Ranjan Daimary, alias D.R. Nabla. Prospects for yet another round of fratricidal clashes are imminent, thus posing a significant threat to the peace process.

• M. Amarjeet Singh
• January 12, 2009
• IDSA Comments

The October 30, 2008 serial blasts in Assam were the most horrific that the state has witnessed till date. These blasts have completely confused the investigating agencies, which still seem to be focusing only upon the foot soldiers while the real masterminds are sitting happily in Bangladesh and congratulating their points men in India for doing a good job.

• Anand Kumar
• December 24, 2008
• IDSA Comments

The year 2008 has seen terrorist attacks in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Agartala, Imphal, and now Assam. The month of October alone witnessed terrorist attacks in Tripura and Manipur, before the October 30 serial bomb blasts in Assam. On October 1, four explosions in Agartala left two civilians dead and nearly 100 injured, while the blasts in Imphal on October 21 killed 18 civilians. The 9 serial blasts in Assam on October 30 killed 83 civilians and injured more than 300.

• Namrata Goswami , Dilip Gogoi
• November 14, 2008
• IDSA Comments

Bodo militancy can be effectively resolved by accommodating the only surviving Bodo militant outfit within the existing self-governing territorial council that came into existence in 2003. In the mid-1980s, the Bodos of Assam under its influential student body, the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU), which began a vigorous mass movement demanding a separate Bodoland state on the North of the Brahmaputra. The movement lasted for about a decade and resulted in the establishment of a territorially defined self governing council known as Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) in 1993.

• M. Amarjeet Singh
• October 20, 2008
• IDSA Comments

Insurgency movements in India’s northeast would appear to be even more intractable and beyond solution if not for the ongoing ceasefires and peace negotiations between the government and two dozen outfits in various states. Products of the efforts by community based organisations, official initiatives or the plain bankruptcy of ideas of the rebel outfits, such negotiations have been the harbinger of tranquillity in many areas of the region.

• Shanthie Mariet D'Souza
• June 19, 2008
• IDSA Comments