Guwahati: The spiral of violence let loose by ULFA in Assam continues to jolt the state with no indications of any let-up in the near future, according to state intelligence sources.
This is despite the fact that security forces have launched a sustained campaign in Upper Assam districts persuading the parents of ULFA militants to ask their children to return to the mainstream. The campaign has borne fruits with more than 70 militants surrendering during the past few months.
The ULFA, however, remains adamant, targeting market places, railway tracks and other vital installations.
During the year more than 75 bomb blasts have taken place killing at least 50 people and injuring more than 500.
The ruling Congress is keeping its ears to the ground as Panchayat Polls are due in the state on December 31 and January 9. The government has already tabled the Saikia Commission report on secret killings, which indicts former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. The report is expected to be a major issue in these polls.
The Saikia Commission report, tabled on November 15, said there was enough evidence to show that the then Home Minister (Mahanta held the Home portfolio) was at the helm of these extra-constitutional killings.
'Secret killings', carried out between 1999-2001 in the state, are referred to the killings of kin of ULFA militants allegedly by surrendered ULFA militants with the help of state police machinery.
Violence has remained a leitmotif in the state with insurgency, an abduction turning into a tragedy and the demand of six communities for scheduled tribe status turning violent dominating the headlines in Assam during 2007.
The year saw banned ULFA unleashing a series of attack on the Bihari community living in Upper Assam's Sibsagar, Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts, killing 70 people.
The ULFA started the mayhem on January 5 targeting the Hindi-speaking community. To allay the fears, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the state capital. But a tense situation continues to prevail among Hindi-speaking communities.
A major highlight of ULFA's activity during the year was abduction of Food Corporation of India's Executive Director P C Ram and his subsequent killing along with two ULFA militants in an encounter with the police.
Ram's death raised a furore. He was kidnapped by ULFA men from Guwahati on April 17. The police on June 30 claimed that a body resembling the abducted official had been found in a village along the Indo-Bhutan border.
Ram's son too claimed that the badly mutilated body was his father's. However a few days later, a person claiming to be Ram called up his family members, who urged the state and Central governments to secure his release.
The police raided a house at Borka Panitema in Kamrup district on the night of July 10 and by the next morning, Ram along with the two ULFA militants were killed in an encounter.
The killing is being probed by a Central investigating officer after Ram's family approached the Guwahati High Court.
The peace talks, initiated in 2005 to bring ULFA to the negotiating table, have so far remained fruitless with the outfit sticking to its demand for getting its jailed cadres released and the government insisting talks without preconditions.
The state hogged the limelight for a violence of different genre towards the end of the year when adivasis, also called the tea tribe community, clashed with residents during a rally. The adivasis have demanded Scheduled Tribe status.
The adivasis vandalised public property. And to the horror of all, a young adivasi woman was stripped on the roads by a section of the mob flaring up the situation further and leading to the imposition of curfew.
Following the violence, the demand for ST status from six other communities, including morans, motoks, chutiyas, tai-ahoms and koch-rajbongshis, has become strident. A series of agitations are lined up by them.
Bureau Report
