Abstract
The “little wars” in North East India have been waged primarily
on ethnic lines, with almost every insurgent organization owing its natal charts
to a distinct ethnic identity. Indeed, the various insurgent charters and assertions
too have been characterized by agendas that are determined by the ethnic substratum
that sired each movement.
The insurgency situation in North East India, however, is beginning to witness a unique phenomenon, which could well introduce a different order of extremism than has traditionally been known to exist. Islamic militant activities have begun to proliferate in the region with an urgency that could well have not only a motivation to usurp the separatist mantle from the ethnically based insurgent movements which have been flourishing in the region, but also with a conspiracy to further an agenda which has religious fanaticism and division as important coordinates. This conspiracy seems to be gaining ground particularly after Operation Enduring Freedom and the “detalibanization” of Afghanistan, when active remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taliban reportedly entered Bangladesh, which abuts North East India. The region is also heir to myriad subterfuges by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan and the Directorate General of Field Intelligence (DGFI) of Bangladesh, intelligence agencies that are beginning to expand their aid to North East insurgent organizations by including Islamic groups in the region. Indeed, this has been compounded by the fact that the present government in Bangladesh seems to be not only sympathetic to the separatist movements in North East India, but is also purportedly turning a blind eye to the fundamentalist engineering which is currently underway in the Islamic republic.
Matters have not helped the situation with the state of Assam in North East India having not only a sizeable Muslim population, but also a long and porous border with Bangladesh, which has a predominantly Muslim population. Indeed, the population of four geo-strategically positioned districts of Assam has become one of Muslim majority—a reported consequence of the illegal migration from erstwhile East Bengal, East Pakistan and now Bangladesh. Recent reports have also indicated that the ISI and the DGFI are reportedly encouraging the illegal influx with an eye to carving out a Brihot Bangladesh (Greater Bangladesh) in the region. The Islamic militant movements in the region are also finding an organized parish in the illegal migrant population whose ideology and socio-religious commitments continue to be informed by experiences from across the border, which has grown in magnitude as a result of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)—the most prominent, ethnic separatist movement in Assam—jettisoning the lofty ideals by which it took birth, in order to become a willing hostage of the ISI and the events and factors which are in play in Bangladesh and in the neighborhood.