Terror kills more in northeast than elsewhere

NEW DELHI: Violence in the 106 Naxal-affected districts of the country and militancy in Jammu & Kashmir may hog the limelight, but it’s in the northeast that most die in terror attacks.
In 2014, due to various terror attacks while 193 people died in Kashmir and 372 in Naxal areas, 413 died in the northeast. Assam is the worst sufferer of human casualties in terror attacks among all Indian states.Comparatively, communal violence which has been a major concern in the past couple of years has claimed 95 lives.
Notably, some of India’s best security resources remain invested in these regions. Sustained effort by various governments at the Centre both on socio-economic and security front have brought down violence in left wing extremism (LWE) areas and Kashmir has remained comparatively peaceful in recent years. It’s only the northeast where deaths in insurgent violence continues unabated.
“The focus on the northeast, though emphasized by this government, has been far behind both the emotional and physical investments the Centre has made in LWE and J&K over the years. It took massacre of over 80 people in Assam last year for government to launch an offensive against cadres of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbjit) or NDFB(S). In a matter of weeks the outfit has been significantly weakened. No one is asking what stopped the government from doing so earlier,” said a security establishment officer dealing with the region.
In 2014, Assam accounted for 168 deaths in 246 insurgency incidents. As many as 144 of these deaths were at the hands of NDFB(S) cadres. In 2013 too, the outfit claimed maximum lives in Assam. Of the 40 deaths recorded due to insurgency in the state in 2013, 16 were in NDFB (S) attacks. Comparatively United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) claimed just three lives while Karbi People’s Liberation Tigers (KPLT) killed 12.
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According to government data, in the last three years (up to February 28, 2015) insurgent outfits in Assam have killed 242 people including 14 security personnel.
“Unlike J&K where our neighbour is constantly pushing in terrorists, we have a friend in Bangladesh on the northeast side. However, the region is far more complicated than both J&K and LWE areas. Still, we must leverage our advantages in the form of friends in the neighbourhood to weaken these groups further,” said the official.