On December 15,
2015, Assam Rifles (AR) personnel killed a militant of the Khaplang
faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K),
identified as ‘Lieutenant’ Wangmi Wangdung aka Nyamjan
Hasik, during an operation at Langka village under the Nampong
Police Station in the Changlang District of Arunachal Pradesh.
One AK 56 rifle, three magazines, 105 live rounds of ammunition,
hand grenades, an ‘extortion pad’, ration book and some cash were
recovered from the possession of the slain militant. According
to reports, AR personnel launched the operation following information
that a group of 10 to 12 NSCN-K militants were taking shelter
in a hideout located in the village. While Wangdung was killed,
the others managed to escape under the cover of darkness.
On April 26, 2015,
Security Forces (SFs) killed an unidentified militant of the Arunachal
Pradesh Depressed People’s Front (APDPF) in the Deban area of
Changlang District. SFs also arrested six militants of the group.
APDPF was formed in 2014 by some Chakma youths principally to
engage in extortion, abduction, and other criminal activities,
in the Diyun, Miao and Namsai areas of Changlang and Namsai Districts.
The group has approximately 10 to 12 cadres who had undergone
armed training in Bangladesh in 2014.
These were the
only militant fatalities at the hands of the SFs through 2015.
In 2014, SFs killed six militants in four separate incidents.
SFs lost four of
their personnel in two separate incidents in 2015. In a major
[resulting in three or more fatalities] incident, three Army personnel
were killed and another four were wounded in an ambush when cadres
of the Isak-Muivah faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland
(NSCN-IM)
fired on their convoy at Tupi village, along the Khonsa-Longding
road, in Tirap District on April 2, 2015. The ambush was carried
out by the NSCN-IM to ‘avenge’ the killing and arrests of its
cadres by SFs in Arunachal Pradesh. Four NSCN-IM cadres were killed
and another four were arrested in the State through 2014. According
to the Arunachal Pradesh Police, NSCN-IM militants including self-styled
‘sergeant major’ Ayo Tangkhul, ‘captain’ Kapai aka Singmayo
Kapai, ‘lieutenant’ Ami Tangkhul, ‘lieutenant colonel’ Kewang
Hassik, ‘major’ Anok Wangsu and ‘sergeant major’ Chenaye Tangkhul
aka Ayo, were suspected to have carried out the attack
with the help of some local villagers.
In another attack
targeting AR personnel, militants carried out an Improvised Explosive
Device (IED) attack at Monmao village, near the India-Myanmar
border, in the Changlang District, on February 6, 2015. Two civilian
porters working for AR were killed, while nine AR troopers were
injured in the blast. One of the injured AR trooper succumbed
to his injuries the next day. Later, NSCN-K sources claimed that
the attack was a joint operation by the NSCN-K and the Independent
faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA-I),
against the Indian Army.
The SFs also had
a lucky escape as two suspected NSCN-K militants, including a
Myanmar national, were killed and another was injured, when an
IED they were trying to plant exploded accidentally at Wakka,
near the Indo-Myanmar border, in Longding District on June 9,
2015. The selection of the spot for planting the IED suggests
that the militants had AR personnel and their assets in mind as
targets, since an AR outpost is located about eight kilometers
away. A live IED, along with a remote control, was recovered from
the site of the incident.
Earlier, on June
7, 2015, around 30 to 35 heavily armed NSCN-K militants had opened
fire at an AR camp in the Lazu area of Tirap District bordering
Myanmar. There was no report of any casualty, as alert AR personnel
retaliated immediately and effectively, forcing the militants
to flee. Around 70 empty AK-47 cartridges and some unexploded
bombs were recovered from the incident site.
Significantly,
Arunachal Pradesh had not recorded any SF fatality through 2014.
In fact, the last SF fatality dated back to October 25, 2007,
when three AR personnel and a civilian were killed and another
eight were injured in an ambush carried out by NSCN-IM militants
in a remote jungle in the Tirap District.
The State did not
witness a single attack targeting civilians through 2015. However,
two civilian porters were killed in the February 6 attack targeting
AR personnel. In 2014, three civilians had been killed in two
separate incidents. In 2014, two civilians were killed in crossfire
between AR personnel and militants at Holam village in Khonsa
in the Tirap District on January 2, 2014. In the second incident,
a trader from Kerala was found dead in a jungle in the Cheputa
village in Papum Pare District on September 5, 2014, after he
had been abducted a week earlier, on August 27, 2014. These civilian
killings were recorded in Arunachal Pradesh after an almost six
year gap, since October 25, 2007.
According to partial
data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP),
Arunachal Pradesh has recorded a total of 10 insurgency-related
fatalities, including two civilians, four SF personnel and four
militants, through 2015 (data till December 31), as against nine
fatalities (three civilians and six militants) in 2014. Overall
security environment in the State thus remained more or less stable.
Insurgency in Arunachal peaked in 2001, with 63 fatalities, including
40 civilians, 12 SF personnel and 11 militants.
SFs also arrested
a total of 21 militants in 10 separate incidents in 2015, as against
19 such arrests in eight separate incidents in 2014. 11 of the
arrested militants belonged to Arunachal Pradesh-based outfits
– seven of the APDPF and four of the National Liberation Council
of Tani Land (NLCT). Three arrested militants belonged to Nagaland-based
outfits – two of NSCN (faction not known) and one of NSCN-IM.
One militant belonged to the Assam-based National Democratic Front
of Bodoland (NDFB).
Affiliations of the remaining six militant’s arrested remained
unconfirmed.
According to the
Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) data, as on September 15,
2015, abductions in the States of the Northeast registered a significant
decline in 2015, with Arunachal Pradesh showing a nearly 50 per
cent drop in incidents of abduction, from 49 in 2014 to 24 in
2015. NSCN-K was responsible for the maximum number of recorded
incidents, followed by NSCN-Khole Kitovi (NSCN-KK).
Arunachal has long
remained ‘an island of relative peace’ in India’s troubled Northeast,
though it has been affected, for some years, by an ‘overflow’
of violence from neighboring States. Crucially, all the incidents
of killing through 2015 were reported from three eastern Districts
– Tirap, Changlang and Longding – which border Nagaland and are
regarded as sanctuaries by Naga militant outfits NSCN-IM and NSCN-K.
Crucially, these three Districts are part of NSCN-IM’s projected
State of Nagalim
(Greater Nagaland).
Through an order
issued on November 4-5, 2015, UMHA further extended the Armed
Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in 16 Police Stations of Arunachal
Pradesh for six months, citing the presence of Naga insurgent
groups including NSCN-K, NSCN-KK and the Reformation faction of
NSCN (NSCN-R) besides Assam based terror outfits ULFA-I and the
IK Songbijit faction of the NDFB (NDFB-IKS), to declare these
Districts "disturbed areas" under section 3 of AFSPA.
AFSPA was first implemented in these three Districts on September
17, 1991. Significantly, of the five incidents of killing reported
in 2015, NSCN-K was responsible for three; while NSCN-IM and APDPF
were responsible for one each, clearly demonstrating that the
preponderance of violence was coming from neighbouring States.
This ‘overflow’ is a major concern.
Assam-based Bodo
militant groups also pose a security threat to Arunachal Pradesh,
especially along the Arunachal-Assam border. A UMHA notification
of March 27, 2015 observed,
a further
review of the law and order situation in entire districts
in Assam bordering Arunachal Pradesh reveals that areas
lying within the police stations in Arunachal Pradesh bordering
Assam remain a cause of serious concern… There is presence
of NDFB-S, NSCN-IM, NSCN-K, ULFA-I, Kamtapur Liberation
Organization (KLO),
Manipur People's Liberation Front (MPLF) along the Assam-Arunachal
Pradesh border. Outfits like Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL),
United National Liberation Front (UNLF),
People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
and Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP)
are helping NDFB-S and ULFA-I and KLO for movement of men,
material, infiltration and exfiltration…
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Accordingly, AFSPA
had been extended to nine new Districts of Arunachal through the
notification on March 27. However, on May 5, 2015, the Government
changed its decision and AFSPA was lifted from these Districts.
Arunachal Pradesh
also faces the problem of the illegal influx and settlement of
foreigners, especially the presence of the 53,000 strong Chakma
and Hajong refugees that has created a sense of marginalization
among indigenous tribes like the Noctes, Wangchow, Khamtis, Singphos
and Tsangas in the eastern-most part of Arunachal; while in the
western part of the State, Tibetans, Bhutanese and Nepalese are
exerting demographic dominance over the indigenous Monpas, Sherdukpens,
Akas and Mijis. Further, in central part of the State, there is
a floating population of Bangladeshis that has created tension
among Nyishi, Adi, Galo, Apatani and Tagin tribes.
Significantly,
on September 17, 2015, the Supreme Court (SC) directed the Union
Government and the State Government to grant citizenship to Chakma
and Hajong refugees within three months. The State Government
filed a review petition on October 26, 2015, aggrieved at the
SC’s decision. Though the Supreme Court rejected the State Government’s
application on November 19, 2015, the Arunachal Pradesh Government
has again decided to file a curative petition in respect to the
permanent settlement of Chakma and Hajong refugees in the State.
On November 23, 2015, Chief Minister Nabam Tuki noted, "We
are not against the grant of Indian citizenship to the Chakma,
Hajong refugees, but opposed to their permanent settlement in
Arunachal Pradesh and the exemption from the Inner Line Permit".
While Arunachal
Pradesh has been relatively free of the widespread insurgencies
that have afflicted much of India’s Northeast, patterns of militant
overflow and demographic destabilization do create significant
security challenges in this sensitive border State, which require
enhancement of the capacity and quality of the SFs deployed. According
to a report published on April 8, 2015, UMHA had already given
an ‘in principle’ nod to raise 16 additional battalions of the
Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Force, of which 8,000 personnel
(about eight battalions) would be deployed in the Northeast, mainly
in Arunachal Pradesh. Also, between the 2012-13 and 2014-15 fiscal
years, Arunachal Pradesh received INR 730 million under the Security
Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme to strengthen its Police network.
In addition to an unprecedented strengthening of SF capacities
in the State, accelerated development initiatives in the fields
of infrastructure and economy, are also necessary if a sustainable
peace is to be established.
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