February 2004 

Satish Kumar and Joseph Kuba 

The Peace Process

The much hyped dialogue process between India and Pakistan kick-started when the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries met at the hill town of Murree near Islamabad on February 17.  A broad understanding on the modalities and time frame to carry forward the process of a composite dialogue, agreed upon during the SAARC summit in January in Islamabad, was reported to have been reached.  Picking up on the interrupted agendas of 1998, such as Siachen, the Tulbul Navigation Project, Sir Creek, terrorism and drug trafficking, economic and commercial cooperation and the promotion of friendly exchange in various fields, it was decided that the two countries would resume the dialogue in May. The two agreed to make determined efforts towards promoting confidence building measures (CBMs) on peace and security and Jammu and Kashmir.

Even as India and Pakistan agreed on a composite dialogue, the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, was reported to have made an appeal to the clergy of his country to eliminate the scourge of terrorism and extremism. Addressing a government sponsored Ulema and Mashaikh convention in Islamabad on February 18, Gen. Musharraf spoke on the measures that were needed to be taken to remove the “four dangerous perceptions”, terrorism and sectarianism, nuclear proliferation, and terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Criticizing the religious parties and individuals preaching jehad (holy war), he said that only the state had the right to declare jehad.

Violence in Jammu and Kashmir

Violence in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, however, did not abate in any substantial measure despite the peace efforts. It may be noted that the central government in late January had also initiated a political dialogue with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and met their representatives in Delhi. On February 27, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, escaped an assassination bid at a public meeting in Beerwah near Srinagar. Militants hurled two grenades that fell 100 meters from where the Chief Minister was to speak. Mr. Sayeed was unhurt but a girl was killed and eight others were injured in the attack. Earlier on February 2, a Deputy Inspector General of the Jammu and Kashmir police was shot dead as he emerged from the Barzulla Mosque. The Safe Kashmir Movement claimed responsibility for the killing. A spokesman of the organization said that the police officer was killed because of his anti-movement activities. Three weeks later, on February 22, a ruling Peoples Democratic Party leader was killed by militants in Ghulam Nabi Baig in Anantnag district. And on February 15, about 14 security force personnel were injured when militants triggered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at Quazigund in south Kashmir’s Anantnag District. Security force personnel, meanwhile, were reported to have recovered nearly 650 kg of explosives and 11000 rounds of ammunition from three militant hideouts from the Anantnag area. 

On February 25, in a major blow to the fledgling peace efforts with the APHC, the Ansari-led Hurriyat Conference threatened to pull out of the dialogue process if the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir did not improve by February 29. The Hurriyat Conference came up with the threat in the wake of the deaths of five civilians in the course of a massive counter-terrorist operation in the Datiwas Forests near Bandipora. While the army admitted that the deceased were killed in crossfire with militants, the villagers insisted that the five people were killed in cold blood to avenge the killing of three army personnel in an earlier exchange of fire.

Left-Wing Extremism

In almost a continuous assault by the People’s War (PW) group in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa through February, a number of civilians, political party activists and police personnel were killed and many were injured. On February 2, two policemen and a district NSUI activist were killed when PW Naxalites opened fired near the town Congress office in Kollapur town in Kurnool. The following day, a state bandh was called by the PW in Andhra Pradesh to protest the killing of three Naxalite cadres. Sporadic incidents of violence took place during the bandh in which a police constable was killed in Anantapur near Hyderabad. An ambush was also carried out on a police convoy in Guntur and the houses of two elected Members of the Legislative Assembly were attacked.

On February 6, PW cadres stormed the district headquarter town of Koraput in Orissa killing a policeman and injuring a jail superintendent before escaping with 200 weapons. The following day, a report of another PW attack came in from Kesavapur in Andhra Pradesh in which three civilians were injured. On February 8, a Telegu Desam Party (TDP) member of the Lok Sabha, K. Srinivasulu, and six others had a providential escape when Naxalites of the PW detonated five-directional claymore mines targeting the vehicle in which they were traveling near Kuntimaddi village in Andhra Pradesh. An abortive attack on two police stations in Annavaram and Gudem Kotha Veedhi near Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh by the PW was reported on February 9. A few days later, on February 13, a senior leader of the TDP in Rangareddy district was shot dead by suspected PW cadres in Andhra Pradesh. On the same day cadres of the PW detonated a land mine near Dhandabadi village near Bhubaneshwar in Orissa in which 14 people including an IAS officer were injured. Another TDP party activist, Ramawath Chandru, lost his life at Bandameedi Thanda in Andhra Pradesh when he was shot at by the PW cadres on allegations that he had given information to the police that led to the exchange of fire near the Kasaram Vaagu area on January 23.

On February 15, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu, announced that he was ready to give weapons to gram rakshak dalams (village defence squads) in an effort to arm civilians to meet the Naxalite threat. The Chief Minister was replying to questions from presspersons in the wake of demands for protective weapons from villagers of Rayapolu in Ibahimpatnam Mandal of Rangareddy District. The Commercial Taxes Minister, K. Vijayarama Rao, also said that Mr. Naidu’s proposal was sound and that arms could be given as per the Arms Act. He said that weapons would enable the people to exercise their rights to protect themselves.

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 January 2004 
Satish Kumar and Joseph Kuba 

Government- All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Dialogue

On January 22, leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Maulvi Abbas Ansari, Abdul Ghani Bhat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Bilal Lone and Fazl-ul-Haq Qureshi were in Delhi for what has been termed a “historic” dialogue with the Central government on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. The leaders met the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani and also had an unscheduled meeting with the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee. The APHC leaders announced after the meeting that they had held “amicable, free, frank, fair and fruitful” discussions.

The meeting created both optimistic and pessimistic speculations about some of the important issues with regard to a long-term resolution of the Kashmir dispute. According to observers, three positive developments were discernible in this latest attempt increasing the scope for further discussions in the future. First, the positive change in the “public polemic” of the APHC centrists. For example, the APHC leaders assured Prime Minister Vajpayee that the “entire Kashmir leadership” was behind him in any endeavor to find “an honourable and durable solution through dialogue”. Secondly, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani’s promise that “cases of prisoners who have not committed heinous crimes will be reviewed” and the subsequent release of 18 prisoners on January 26, which was expected to be followed by more such releases. This was expected to win over leaders and factions opposed to the ongoing dialogue, particularly because most of those released were members of the hardline APHC faction. And thirdly, the inclusion of Fazl-ul-Haq Qureshi of the People’s Political Front and a person close to the Hizbul Mujahideen in the talks. This was expected to increase the influence of the APHC centrists among this armed group.

Anti-dialogue forces in Jammu and Kashmir, however, made it clear that they were against any move by the APHC centrists to strike a deal. Armed groups such as the Jamait-ul-Mujahideen and the Hizbul Mujahideen had threatened to kill anyone “walking away with the fruits of their jehad”. The Geelani faction of the APHC and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front also indicated that they would not allow any deal that betrayed the “secessionist” cause. Pakistan, while welcoming the talks as a “very good beginning” affirmed that no talks on Kashmir would succeed without involving Islamabad. The Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman, Masood Khan, responding to questions from reporters on the summit talks in Islamabad said that “the situation in Kashmir “ was a “matter of concern” and hoped that when the dialogue between India and Pakistan commenced in February the issue would be taken up. The reigning in of armed groups in Kashmir by Pakistan remains to be a key factor in any successful dialogue on Kashmir.

Cultural Terrorism

On January 5, the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune, Maharashtra, became the target of vandalism by the Sambhaji Brigade, a splinter group of the Maratha Seva Sangh, an organization reportedly active in “promoting the cause of the Marathas”. A 150-strong mob protesting against the Institute’s alleged involvement in maligning the name of the Maratha king Shivaji barged into its premises, ransacked the library, destroyed thousands of rare books, ancient manuscripts, old photographs and priceless artifacts and took away some valuable historical texts. The attackers were reacting to a supposedly derogatory remark on Shivaji’s parentage made by the American author James W. Laine in his book Shivaji: A Hindu King in an Islamic Kingdom. The police arrested 72 activists of the Sambhaji Brigade in this connection. A few days later it was reported that the organisation’s spokesman, Gangadhar Banbare, called for the immediate release of all the activists and hailed them as “brave soldiers of the brigade” and as “cultured educated youth”. He said that it was the researchers who helped Mr. Laine in writing the book who should have been arrested.

On January 29, a similar kind of attack was perpetrated by activists of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), when they ransacked an exhibition of paintings by M.F. Hussain, a noted Indian painter, and damaged several of his works in Surat, Gujarat. A VHP activist alleged that the exhibition, the Garden Art Silk Gallery, which was inaugurated by the painter himself on January 26 included several “objectionable” paintings of Hindu goddesses and gods. He said that such paintings were against Indian culture and should not be allowed to be displayed. The mob who came and ransacked the paintings targeted only Hussain’s paintings and took away some of the “more objectionable” ones. A 30 year-old canvas depicting a woman with a bird was burnt and a painting depicting Goddess Durga was pulled down.

Incidents of cultural intolerance in the form of criminal ransacking of cultural artifacts such as the above or religious symbols or places, particularly by Hindu fundamentalist groups, have become a much more regular feature than in the past. In many of these cases, however, it may be noted that the pattern of attacks indicated that the acts were not motivated by purely cultural considerations but also by political interests and/or caste feuds. For example, many books that showed Shivaji in a favourable light were also destroyed during the attack on BORI. A statue of Goddess Saraswati was broken down and a rare translation of the Rig Veda by Shakaracharya was torn and thrown away. This indicated that the perpetrators were least concerned with the cultural or religious significance of their actions. It also clearly showed that some others had instigated the members to carry out the attack. In this particular case, some have pointed out this incident smelled of caste politics, very much a part of Maharashtra’s history, wherein anti-Brahmin forces, like the organization to which the attackers belonged, undertook any activity that was targeted against the Brahmins and many of these people believed that scholars of the state belong to the Brahmin community. M.F. Hussain, in a similar fashion remarked that he was particularly attacked not because his paintings were intended to depict Gods and Goddesses in a bad light, but because of previous controversies surrounding his earlier paintings and also because the attackers were completely ignorant about art and its significance. Mr. Hussain said that this was an attack on “Indian contemporary art” which was a product of India’s “composite culture”.

Left-Wing Violence

On January 13, 30-35 activists of the People’s War (PW), a left-wing extremist group, active in the state of Andhra Pradesh and some other surrounding states, made an abortive bid to attack the Gudem Kotha Veedhi police station in Vishakapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. The police were, however, able to preempt the attack due to a tip-off. The activists unable to complete the mission attacked a police party conducting a combing operation in the area and set off eight landmine explosions in nearby Kampamanupakala. No casualties were reported. The next day, on January 14, members of the PW killed four persons and injured two others at Mirjapur village in Jehanabad district in Bihar. The victims said to be supporters of the Ranvir Sena were offering prayers in a temple. It was stated that the militants raised slogans saying that the attack was a revenge for the killing of five of its supporters early in January by the Ranvir Sena. It may be noted here that on January 3, the Ranvir Sena, private army of the feudal landlords, had shot dead five people and injured two others, all said to be supporters of the PW, in Pariyari village under Kinjarpolice station of Arwal district in Bihar. On January 16, again, a special police party had a narrow escape when PW activists set off three claymore mine ‘traps’. The police party was on its way to Guthikonda village in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh to investigate the killing of a villager, N. Venkateshwarlu, by the PW.

Left-wing violence came up as a major issue in a conference on “Internal Security” attended by the Chief Secretaries and the police Chiefs of all the states in New Delhi on January 17. The increased escalation in violence perpetrated by the groups, the PW or the People’s War Group (PWG) as known in some states and the Maoist Communist Center (MCC) and the increasing influence/spread to adjoining states were the main concerns. Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, parts of West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have been the nine states so far affected by communist violence. In recent reports, the PWG leadership has been attempting to mobilize people in urban areas with their most important objective being the consolidation of a strong base in the capital, Delhi. The organization, which has been banned, has reportedly deputed over a dozen full time activists to mobilize the workers class in the capital and the neighboring satellite townships like Noida, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad. The Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, speaking at the conference said that the Center has agreed to provide Central Para-Military Forces (CPMF) to states affected by the left-wing extremists free of costs. Earlier the states had to pay for the deployment of the CPMFs. The decision in this regard was expected to bring major relief to the nine states which had been making the demand for free deployment of the troops in the past few years.

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 December  2003 
Satish Kumar and Joseph Kuba 

Crackdown on ULFA, NDFB and KLO Camps in Bhutan

            On the morning of December 15, Bhutan launched a massive offensive against militant camps belonging to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), along its 360 km border with India. According to official reports from Bhutan, the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) forces began shelling the camps at various places with 81 mm mortar and machine guns. The onslaught was met with 51 mm mortar and rifle-fired grenades. The ULFA headquarter complex at Phukaptong in Samdrup Jongkhar district was reportedly destroyed the same day. By December 16, ULFA’s secondary headquarters at Merengphu were overrun. The NDFB’s biggest camp in Tikri, another NDFB camp in Nganglam sub-district and KLO camps in Samtse district were also destroyed. On December 18, Bhutan announced that all 30 militant camps in the kingdom had been uprooted. A Bhutan Foreign Ministry statement said that of these 30 camps, 13 belonged to the ULFA, 12 to the NDFB and five to the KLO. Further, it was reported that during the operations, the RBA was able to capture top leaders of the organizations including Bhimkanta Burugohan, one of the founder leaders of the ULFA. The KLO suffered the most serious setback with the arrest of five of its most senior leaders, Joydeb Roy alias Tom Adhikari, Milton Burman alias Mihir Das, Sanjoy Adhikari, Bhim Dakua and Pabitra Sinha. During the operations, over 100 cadres of the various organisations were reportedly killed and over 500 captured and handed over to the Indian authorities.

             India has been seriously concerned about insurgent activities in the Northeastern states from hideouts in neighboring countries. The India-Bhutan border area has been particularly sensitive because groups, particularly those operating in Assam and North Bengal, have found it more convenient to carry out their activities in India from their bases in Bhutan even though they have hideouts in Bangladesh and Myanmar also. The crackdown has not only secured this stretch of geostrategic location for India but also has assured India that Bhutan will not allow such activities in the future. It may be recalled that National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra, had warned Bhutan in March 2003 to close down 15 militant camps before June, in the wake of intelligence reports that revealed that the King himself, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, had visited one of the ULFA camps during the second week of March. The King had assured Mishra that the camps would be destroyed. During the official visit of the King of Bhutan to India on September 14-18, he had announced in New Delhi that Bhutan had already sent warnings to the various groups that a severe crackdown on the camps would follow if the groups did not disband their camps and the cadres left Bhutanese soil on their own. The December crackdown has been seen as a follow up of this warning. The royal visit saw the approval of a massive assistance package amounting to Rs. 1464 crores to Bhutan, indicating improved bilateral relations and thereby promoting India’s strategic interest in the area of high geopolitical sensitivity.

             The operation, that resulted in the capture of top leaders of the various organisations, the killing of a large number of their cadres and the destruction of their most important strongholds has severely demoralized not only these groups but other insurgent groups who have relied heavily on hideouts in the region. This has also sent out strong signals of a similar crackdown in the future involving other neighbouring states. Meanwhile, there have been reports that the groups are frantically trying to recover from the onslaught. The ULFA, for example, proposed peace talks in the aftermath of the crackdown, which the Centre rejected saying that the “proactive policy against the insurgents” would continue. The Chairman of ULFA, Aurobindo Rajkhowa, was also reported to have approached China for “sanctuary and shelter” for all those affected, including the Arunachal Dragon Force (ADF), which had its camp in Bhutan.

             On December 18, the ULFA attacked a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) unit seriously injuring two jawans in Sibsagar district of Upper Assam indicating the possibilities of increased attacks by these groups in the wake of the crackdown in an attempt to regroup. Meanwhile, it has been reported that Indian security forces are vigilantly manning transit points to stop the groups’ cadres from reentering India or transiting to Myanmar or Bangladesh.

Dissolution of the Bodo Liberation Tigers

On December 6, the Interim Executive Council of the Bodo Territorial Council, headed by Hagrama Basumatary (former Commander-in-Chief of the BLT) was sworn in at the Kokhrajar District Sports Association stadium in Assam. This signalled the end of 17 years of armed struggle by the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) and yet another example of a successful political resolution of armed conflict in the ethnically diverse Northeastern region of India, after the 1986 Mizo Accord that settled the Mizo political issue. Mr. Basumatary announced the dissolution of the BLT, brought down the group’s flag and hoisted a white flag. The formation of a Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) in Assam was finally agreed upon between the government and the BLT on February 10, 2003 although the process had been started in February 1993. It took about nine months for the government to clear all hurdles, particularly, the territorial demarcation of the new unit.

The formation of the new political unit in Assam has, however, not gone down well with all parties. Specifically, the issue has raised fears among non-Bodo people living within the proposed BTC who argue that the concessions would benefit only the Bodo community in the ethnically mixed region comprising of caste Hindu Assamese, the Adivasis and the immigrant Muslim communities. The Sanmilita Janagosthiya Sangram Samity (SJSS), an apex body of several non-Bodo organizations, has threatened agitational activities. It called for a 100-hour bandh after the new Council assumed office. The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), opposed to BLT and who have been demanding an independent Bodoland has also rejected the formation of the Council. On the other hand it has increased its assault on the security forces and non-Bodo people in the region. It may be noted that from January to November 2002, the NDFB has been responsible for the massacre of 89 people many of whom were non-Bodos. The massacres were carried out in protest against the likely formation of the BTC.

Problems of Governance

On December 6, the Congress Party suspended the outgoing Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, following allegation by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) that he had attempted to bribe newly elected BJP Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Chhattisgarh to engineer a split in the party and prevent its government from taking office the following day. Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, at a late night press conference in Raipur, played a tape purportedly containing the conversation of the deal and displayed currency to the tune of Rs. 45 lakhs alleged to have been given to BJP members, Virendra Pandey and Balliram Kashyap. The case was subsequently handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and on December 9, the CBI filed cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Mr. Jogi, his son Amit Jogi and Congress Member of Parliament, P.R. Kunte.

Corruption at high places, and the regularity with which it has been taking place has become a serious challenge to good governance. This episode, for example, came just a month after Union Minister of State, Dilip Singh Judev, of the BJP was exposed by Indian Express, on camera, of accepting money in return for favours to an Australian mining company in November. Mr. Jogi had also been chargesheeted earlier by the CBI in a forgery case. On December 7, in New Delhi, Mr. Jogi said before a panel of senior Congress leaders that he had no role in the tape controversy and that the tape had been “doctored” in order to frame him. Meanwhile, the government has asked the CBI to make an impartial enquiry into the case and asserted that the law should take its own course.

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