SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 13, No. 19, November 10, 2014

INDIA

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Jharkhand: Gumla: Growing Disquiet
Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management

A group of heavily-armed cadres of the People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI), a breakaway faction of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), ambushed an SUV and killed all seven persons travelling in the vehicle between Harup and Rerwa villages under the Kamdara Police Station limits in the Gumla District of Jharkhand, in the evening of November 3, 2014. Media reports suggested that the persons killed belonged to the ‘Shanti Sena’ (Peace Army), an anti-Maoist resistance force backed by the Police, and identified three of the victims as Madan Sahu, a local Shanti Sena leader, and two of his brothers, Karnal and Lalmohan. The Police, confirming the killing, claimed they had no connection with the Shanti Sena. On November 4, Gumla Superintendent of Police (SP) Bheemsen Tuti, nevertheless, confirmed, "Two of the seven killed were SPOs [Special Police Officers] and working to halt PLFI activities." The Police are yet to confirm details of their identities. Sources indicate that Madan Sahu’s 'cousins', Karnal and Lalmohan, were in fact the SPOs referred to by the Police, and that the remaining four who were killed were civilians and had nothing to do with either the Police or Shanti Sena.

The November 3 incident was the third major (resulting in three or more fatalities) incident of LWE-related violence in Gumla District in 2014. The Maoists killed three persons on July 25, 2014 for refusing to allow their children to join the outfit. Police claimed that terrified villagers had not lodged any FIR, nor did they recover the bodies. On October 9, 2014, three PLFI cadres were lynched by villagers at Baghima Narotoli village in the District. Azra Bodra, the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Basia, disclosed that the ultras arrived in the village in the afternoon of July 25 and started threatening the villagers, as they had in the past, when a large number of irate villagers assembled on the spot and lynched them.

With elections to the State Assembly due on November 25, militant violence in the State will raise a number of problems. There is speculation that the most recent incident may well be a bid on the part of the PLFI to state its claim to being the ‘most effective muscle power’ in the region, given the expected high demand for various patterns of thuggery during the Assembly elections. Indeed, the murky world of Left Wing Extremist (LWE) violence in the State has long been intertwined with crime, caste and politics. The Shanti Sena, for instance, was floated by Tileshwar Sahu, a Politician belonging to the Sahu community (a powerful business-moneylender community) in 2002, ostensibly to take on the LWE with the backing of the State Police. Some Shanti Sena members reportedly possess licensed weapons, and licenses to others have been issued smoothly because of Sahu’s rapport with the then NDA Government of the State. Later, Sahu is said to have helped the NDA Government win a trust vote in 2005, reportedly procuring  the support of independent MLAs, and was 'rewarded' with the post of Chairman of the State Pollution Control Board.

Unsurprisingly, the armed Shanti Sena has gradually degenerated into a lawless force, and has reportedly engaged in indiscriminate killings, extortion, and other criminal activities in its areas of influence, especially in the Gumla and Simdega Districts. Its successes in taking on the Maoists or helping the Police, on the other hand, are not very clear. The Shanti Sena's involvement in the killing of six tribals in Gumla District on September 19, 2006, provoked widespread outrage. The group has little presence now, and has attracted heavy reprisals from the CPI-Maoist and the PLFI alike. Some of the prominent incidents of such reprisal include:

January 10, 2009: A group of about 40 to 50 CPI-Maoist cadres killed two villagers, identified as Vijay Nayak and Charku Nayak, at Anjan village, about 16 kilometres from the Gumla District headquarters. Both were reportedly members of Shanti Sena. The Maoists also ransacked the houses of village Shanti Sena chief Satyanarayan Thakur and another Sena member, Rampyare, and set ablaze a motorcycle.

April 8, 2008: Nine persons were killed and another two were injured when CPI-Maoist cadres fired on a vehicle and subsequently set it ablaze in the Semra Forest area under the Palkot Police Station in Gumla District. Among the victims were Bhado Singh, chief of the Shanti Sena, and his family members.

July 5, 2005: CPI-Maoist cadres beheaded three members belonging to the Shanti Sena, after seizing all their household goods and destroying their houses, at Khairpani village in Gumla District.

However, it was PLFI that targeted Tileshwar Sahu personally. PLFI cadres killed Sahu's father, Gajendra Sahu, at Jamdih village under Kamdara Police Station limits in Gumla District on April 16, 2008. Finally, Tileshwar Sahu, who had joined the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) party, was killed on March 8, 2014, at his Barhi residence in Hazaribagh District, where he had shifted, sensing a security threat in his base in Gumla. Sahu's political fortunes had, in fact, started deteriorating since 2006, after his fallout with Enosh Ekka, a politician and former State Minister considered to be his political protégé, who pulled out support from the then NDA government much to Sahu's displeasure, and joined the succeeding Madhu Koda (UPA) Government in 2006, moving closer to PLFI. PLFI, moreover, increasingly and personally targeted Sahu because of his support to the Jayanath Sahu gang, PLFI's main adversary. 

PLFI has repeatedly been exposed as a group with no ideological moorings, and has principally flourished as a result of tactical inaction by the Police, who have sought to exploit the turf war between the group and the Maoists. PLFI cadres seldom confront the SFs, with rare exceptions. The group thrives on extortion from contractors, businessmen, Government employees and any person of means that they can lay their hands on. Violence has principally been a tool to enforce extortion demands.

At present, PLFI is dominant in at least 10 of Jharkhand's 81 Assembly seats - Khunti, Torpa, Kolebira, Gumla, Lohardaga, Sisai, Tamar, Mandar, Bishunpur, Simdega - and the group is known to throw its weight behind candidates of their choice. Interestingly, the Police claim that PLFI is the second biggest threat to internal security in Jharkhand, after the CPI-Maoist.

Significantly, PLFI consciously targets SPOs. While the Police accepts that the SPOs work with them to halt PLFI activities, this has not altered the broader Police strategy to look the other way when PLFI cadres engage in violence. SPO fatalities appear to be dismissed as a marginal cost of the games being played in the State.

PLFI's utility to the establishment was demonstrated during the April-May 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when its cadres stopped several candidates from campaigning in their constituencies and asked villagers to vote for particular candidates. FIRs were lodged against the rebels, who had ordered villagers of Khunti District not to vote for anyone other than Enosh Ekka of the Jharkhand Party. Those who opposed PLFI diktats were threatened. An unnamed Congress leader from Gumla thus warned that, with Assembly elections approaching, "PLFI rebels will use Monday's (November 3) massacre to create an environment of terror and force villagers to vote for certain candidates. The incident has sparked panic." Several candidates of various political parties in PLFI strongholds are known to be hand-in-glove with the rebels. In May 2014, the Police filed an FIR against Enosh Ekka for traveling in a car that belonged to a wanted PLFI rebel.

The LWE problem in Jharkhand remains acute, with the rebels active in 16 of the State's 24 Districts. According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least 91 persons, including 46 civilians, 34 LWE cadres and 11 SF personnel have been lost their lives in 50 incidents of killing in the State in 2014 (till November 9). Of these 50 incidents, PLFI was involved in 11, and CPI-Maoist in 28. The 11 remaining incidents were attributed to Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), Jharkhand Prastuti Committee (JPC) and others.

CPI-Maoist has now called for a 'peaceful boycott' of the impending Assembly elections, and has appealed to polling parties to refrain from travelling with SF escorts, adding, "Do not blame us if you risk your lives travelling with the Security Forces." Meanwhile, SF personnel seized 400 kilograms of explosive material and over 1,700 detonators during an anti-Naxal operation in the Bokakhar-Ranidah area of Latehar District on November 10.

In the wake of the November 3 attack, Director General of Police (DGP) Rajiv Kumar declared, "Forces are combing parts of Gumla District. The entire area will be sanitized before polls. The rebels are frustrated because of repeated Police action against them".

Nevertheless, the unholy nexus of crime, caste, politics and misgovernance is likely to keep the pot boiling in Jharkhand. The Gumla incidents indicate that, despite the relative weakening of the Maoists, the LWE problem in Jharkhand will take much more before it is brought under control. Protracted political volatility in this resource rich state has enormously compounded the problem, and it remains to be seen whether the electoral outcome this time around produces a more stable outcome.

INDIA

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Meghalaya: Mutating Threats
M. A. Athul
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management

Like a multi headed hydra, the insurgency in Meghalaya is just refusing to die, despite several successes against rebel formations. The ongoing counter insurgency Operation Hill Storm has hurt insurgent formations, but the emergence of new threats has ensured that enduring successes remain elusive.

A trader identified as Bharat Singh Sekhawat, who was abducted on October 15, 2014, from Samanda village in East Garo Hills District by A'chik Matgrik Elite Force (AMEF) was killed by the militants on October 21. His body was exhumed on October 24. His family had paid INR 1.6 million to the abductors as ransom, despite which he was killed.

On October 23, 2014, Meghalaya Police Sub-Inspector Pramoth Sangma, who was leading his team against a suspected Garo militant hideout close to the international border in the Purakhasia area of West Garo Hills, was killed in an exchange of fire. The operation against the militants began in the evening of October 22, after the West Garo Hills Police received intelligence reports about the presence of a camp in the Songmagre village of the Purakhasia area. It was later stated that AMEF and ULFA-I militants were present in the area.

Meghalaya, a State that remained relatively peaceful while insurgency was peaking across India's Northeast, has now emerged as the second most violent province in the region, after Assam. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) data base, there have been a total of 69 insurgency-related fatalities in 2014 (till November 9), including 20 civilians, four Security Force (SF) personnel, and 45 terrorists. These numbers acquire greater significance in view of the fact that Meghalaya has a population of just over 2.65 million (2012 data).  Assam, the worst affected State in the Northeast, accounted for a total of 206 fatalities (98 civilians, 5 SF personnel and 103 militants) in 2014 (nearly three times the fatalities in Manipur), and had a population of 30.94 million in 2012 (nearly twelve time Manipur's population).

Meanwhile, Operation Hill Storm, which was launched on July 11, 2014, has so far led to the killing of just 11 militants, though another 25 have been arrested and some 13 militant camps have been detected and neutralised by SFs. According to SATP data, in the month of October and the first week of November, there were twelve incidents of arrest in which 23 persons were detained.

The pressure created by the counter insurgency (CI) operations has also led to a spike in surrenders by militants. The surrenders, especially by Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) militants have happened at a time when intelligence reports indicated that the GNLA “commander-in-chief” Sohan D. Shira had taken shelter in Bangladesh. A Government source stated that, with Shira taking shelter in Bangladesh, the cadres were left to fend for themselves, and were demoralized, leading them to surrender before the Police. Between October 6 and October 24, in 12 incidents of surrender, 34 militants of various groups [18 GNLA; 8 A'chik Songna An'pachakgipa Kotok (ASAK, earlier known as Garo National Liberation Army-Faction); 1 Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC); 5 A'chik Matgrik Elite Force (AMEF); and two United Achik Liberation Army (UALA)] have surrendered before the SFs. Some of the significant incidents of surrender include:

October 22: Five AMEF militants surrendered before the Police with three pistols, three magazines, 13 rounds of ammunition and a hand grenade, at a remote location in the South Garo Hills District. They were later arrested for the killing of a trader identified as Bharat Singh Shikawat.

October 20: Five GNLA militants surrendered before North Garo Hills District Superintendent of Police (SP) F.K. Marak at Bajengdoba Police Station in East Garo Hills District, after having deserted their command post in the West Khasi Hills. The militants informed authorities that they became disillusioned with the outfit’s ideology and leaders and, together with several other cadres, fled their camp in the West Khasi Hills three months earlier. The militants surrendered with a US made automatic carbine rifle with two magazines and a hundred rounds of ammunition, two 7.65 pistols with two magazines and nine rounds of ammunition, and a wireless handset.

October 6: Six GNLA militants, including the organisation's Dadenggre ‘area Commander’ Manan Ch. Sangma aka Kimpret, surrendered before the Police at Tura in the West Garo Hills, with an AK-56 along with two magazines, 82 live AK rounds, two 7.56 pistols with 2 magazines, 12 rounds of 7.65 pistol ammunition, and one grenade. All of the surrendered cadres were recruited by the outfit between the years 2010-11, with most of them having received training in the Durama Hill Range.

Meanwhile, on September 24, a tripartite agreement was signed between the Government of India (GoI) and the Meghalaya State Government, on the one hand, and the Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC) and the Breakaway faction of ANVC (ANVC-B), on the other. According to the agreement, both ANVC and ANVC-B will be disbanded by the end of November 2014, and their cadres will surrender arms and ammunition to the authorities. Further, a sum of INR one billion will be disbursed as a package over the next five years for development of the Garo Hills area and steps would be taken to strengthen the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC).

Despite recent SF successes and the inking of the Peace Agreement with both factions of the ANVC, an environment of peace and security is still a distant dream in Meghalaya. According to partial data compiled by South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), just between September 27 and November 6, 2014, there have been at least thirteen reported incidents of abduction in which 18 people were taken hostage. Of these, two persons were released and another was rescued by SFs, while one was killed. The whereabouts of the remaining 14 are not available in open media sources.  According to SATP data, there have been a total of at least 48 incidents of abductions in 2014 (till November 9), in which 62 civilians were abducted, of which 24 persons were rescued or released. Information about the other 38 is not available. 2013 saw 17 incidents of abduction, in which 36 people were abducted, of whom two were rescued or released, and another two were killed. There is no information available regarding the 32 others. According to data available at SATP, the month of October has already seen 11 incidents of abductions, the highest in a month this year.

The emergence of new militant groups and factions in the State is the principal factor causing lawlessness in Meghalaya. In 2013 alone, a plethora of militant groups cropped up, including the United Achik Liberation Army (UALA), A’chik Matgrik Liberation Front (AMLF), Achik National Liberation Army (ANLA), Achik Tiger Force (ATF), Achik National Liberation Central Army (ANLCA), and Achik Youth Liberation Front (AYLF). In 2014, another two insurgent groups surfaced: a group of senior GNLA leaders, led by former 'finance secretary' Reding T. Sangma broke away from the outfit's 'military chief' Sohan D. Shira and formed their own organization, the A'chik Songna An'pachakgipa Kotok (ASAK), earlier known as Garo National Liberation Army-Faction (GNLA-F); later, a section of militants from ASAK, in turn led by its 'finance secretary' Jack Marak, abandoned ASAK with three AK rifles and eight pistols, to form the A'chik Matgrik Elite Force (AMEF).

Although CI operations have blunted the major violent groups, such as GNLA and ULFA-I, and the peace settlement has brought ANVC and ANVC-B violence to an end, moderately well equipped and trained breakaway militant groups continue to constitute a security threat. Significantly, the insurgency in Meghalaya is moving in the same general direction of such movements in the North East, with little or no ideological underpinnings and no popular support. Almost all militant groups are no more than criminal undertakings, aimed at making quick money through abduction and extortion. On October 16, 2014, the Meghalaya Police described AMEF as a group of 'hardcore criminals', originally from GNLA, who created a splinter groups with the sole aim of making quick money through criminal activities.

Significantly, an October 9, 2014, report indicates that there have been at least 20 cases of militants being lynched by villagers’ in the five Garo Hills Districts over the preceding eight months. The lynching occurred mostly in remote villages where there is virtually no Police presence.

With an unfenced border with Bangladesh being used by various militant groups, including NSCN-IM and NDFB, to sneak in and out of Bangladesh, as well as for smuggling weapons and ferrying improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and with no effective presence of the structures of Governance across much of the 'remote' Garo Hills areas, the culture of violence refuses to ebb away. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs [UMHA] has already raised concerns at the State Government’s “tardy” approach to completing fencing of the Bangladesh border. Around 70 kilometres of the 443 kilometre border are yet to be fenced. On June 11, 2014, Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma stated that illegal arms were entering the State from countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar and China. Again, on June 24, 2014, Meghalaya Director General of Police P.J.P. Hanaman reiterated that Bangladesh, Myanmar and States like Nagaland were weapons suppliers for Meghalaya-based militants. Nevertheless, the State Government has done little to accelerate processes, such as the construction of the fence along the international border, that could immediately improve the situation.

The neglect of vast regions of the State deemed 'remote', and the virtual abandonment of the populations there to extremist depredations, remain the core issue in the persistence of militancy in Meghalaya. The State's vulnerabilities to destabilizing influences from the neighbourhood have also never been adequately addressed, despite the availability significant options. Despite the lack of political will, nevertheless, SF operations have created dramatic opportunities for consolidation. It remains to be seen whether the Government can discover the will and the focus to exploit these to establish a more permanent peace in the State.

Civilians

Security Force Personnel

Terrorists/Insurgents

Total

INDIA

Assam

Jammu and Kashmir

Manipur

Nagaland

Left-wing Extremism

Chhattisgarh

Jharkhand

Odisha

Total (INDIA)

PAKISTAN

Balochistan

FATA

KP

Punjab

Sindh

Total (PAKISTAN)