1. SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 2, No. 18, November 17, 2003
Data and assessments from SAIR can be freely published in any
form with credit to the South Asia Intelligence Review of the
South Asia Terrorism Portal
ASSESSMENT
INDIA
Assam: Ethnic Face-off
Animesh Roul
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
Acts of barbarism appear to be plumbing new depths in areas around the Singhason Hills of
the Karbi Anglong district of Assam since the last week of October. The district has been in
the grip of ethnic violence following a series of abductions and incidents of arsons perpetrated
by two underground groups respectively claiming to represent the Kuki and Karbi tribes. The
situation turned violent when the Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA) warned its rival United
People's Democratic Solidarity (UPDS, a Karbi group) to end its violent and criminal activities
against the non-Karbis, including the Kukis themselves. The KRA also demanded the release
of one Thangpao Sitlhou, who had been abducted on October 6, 2003, near Singhason area
under the Diphu police station. The abduction drama began soon after. The UPDS abducted
six Kuki tribesmen in October, and in retaliation the KRA took at least 10 Karbis hostage from
Thekerajan under Howraghat police station on November 2, 2003.
Earlier, the UPDS had declared the commencement of 'Operation Super Volcano' in the face
of the KRA's 'Operation Volcano', accusing the Karbi outfit of killing, raping and abducting
members of the non-Karbi communities residing in the Singhason Hill areas of Assam. Even
though the fear of retribution dominates the Karbi villages of Bokolia-Manza-Dhansiri belt of
the Karbi Anglong District, KRA terrorists have torched more than two hundred Karbi
dwellings in two successive attacks on November 4 and 5, 2003, in the Singhasan Hills area.
In retaliation, UPDS terrorists set fire to several homes in the Gangjang village under the
Howraghat police station. Other significant incidents in Karbi Anglong over the last fortnight
include the November 3 incident in which UPDS terrorists gunned down the vice-president of
the Dokmoka Village Defense Party (VDP). On November 11, three Kuki children were burnt
to death at the Lemnol villages, under Diphu police station, when UPDS cadres set fire to five
houses belonging to the Kuki community in the area. Another four Kuki students - identified as
Puominthang, Mimin Tuboi, Momgboi and Thanabol - were abducted from the Baptists
English School in Manja on the same day. Police recovered their bodies the next day.
In the wake of ongoing crisis, the Assam Government put the Army on alert, while the State

2. Police and paramilitary forces have already been deployed in the area to contain the bloody
face off, in which innocent inhabitants are becoming sacrificial goats. Earlier, the
administration had evolved a two-pronged strategy to quell the violence - counter-terrorism
operations and dialogue with indigenous groups. The situation is now getting more
complicated, with an exodus of both Kuki and Karbi people from the vicinity of the Singhason
Hills. While authorities claim that the situation is 'under control', reports indicate that large
numbers of Thadao and Kuki people have already abandoned their villages near Diphu.
Despite the much-touted 'historical relation' between Kukis and Karbis, a recent KRA
statement declared that the Kukis were fed up with the Karbis' behavior, because the UPDS
has been continuously waging a cold war against their community. Historically, however, the
Kukis are not the only community that has been suffering the UPDS' ire in Karbi Anglong.
Since 1995, militant Karbi groups such as the Karbi National Volunteers (KNV) and the Karbi
People's Front (KPF) have been venting their anger against the Citizens Rights Preservation
Committee (CRPC), an umbrella organsatioin of non-Karbi people including the Marwaris,
Biharis, Nepalis and Bengalis. The war against the 'outsiders' started in earnest in March
1999, when the KNV and KPF merged to form the UPDS. The April 9, 2000, massacre of 11
Nepalis by UPDS cadres initiated a new chapter in the campaign against outsiders in Karbi
Anglong.
The UPDS, active in Karbi Anglong and parts of the North Cachar (NC) Hills district, signed a
cease fire agreement with the Union Government on May 23, 2002, for one year, but its
dissident faction, known as the 'Anti-Talk' faction and led by 'general secretary' H.E. Kathar,
remains uncooperative. Rejecting the peace process, Kathar has continued a tirade on the
'self-determination' of the Karbis and other indigenous people in Karbi Anglong. The UPDS
(pro-talks) faction had issued initial warnings against the KRA, saying that it would not remain
a mute spectator to the ''atrocities' being perpetrated on Karbi villagers by 'Kuki terrorists'.
Nevertheless, intra-factional politics of UPDS notwithstanding, the pro-talks faction of the
UPDS has now appealed to both the KRA and its own anti-talks faction to put an end to the
hostilities and has urged them to release hostages from captivity.
The ongoing ethnic violence is no longer restricted to Karbi Anglong, and its echoes are now
audible in the neighboring State of Meghalaya as well. The UPDS - KNV combine's reign of
terror in the Jaintia (Pnar)-inhabited areas under block 1 of Karbi Anglong and areas like
Lamurang, Denler and Tibin has forced over 2000 local Khasi and Pnar people to leave their
homes. The friction between the Karbis and the people of the Jaintia Hills is not new. During
the Legislative Assembly elections in February 2003, threats had been issued by the KNV -
UPDS combine to all residents living in the bordering villages, and these culminated in
macabre incidents of pre-poll violence, including the one on February 8, 2003, when KNV
terrorists killed six villagers in the Jaintia Hills district after severely torturing them.
A passive onlooker to these developments in the past, the Meghalaya Government, fearing a
mass exodus into its territory, has now urged the Assam Government to intervene and to take
proper security measures. Though the crisis in the Singhason Hills has begun to show signs
of abating, the displacement of people could be major bone of contention between the two
neighboring States in the days ahead.