India - The Threat in The Northeast

By Frank Hyland & Animesh Roul

This column is another in the series on India, with a focus on the threat in the Northeast area.

As is true in other nations elsewhere in the world, a number of the terrorist groups extant in India have killed fewer Westerners than others. In some cases it is because, in the case of separatist groups, the groups’ targeting focus is on other Indians and the Indian Government. In other instances it is because of the groups’ lower level of capability and smaller areas of operations. A critical caveat, especially for tourists and business travelers to keep in mind, though, is that even when targeting their own government, the explosive devices they detonate or the automatic weapons they empty into crowds make no distinction between nationalities, and many victims of terrorist incidents over the years have been wounded and killed around the globe in attacks targeting other nationalities.

Depending on the author of the list of terrorist groups operating in India, the list can number some 50-odd groups. The names of some you will likely be seeing for the first time. Nowhere within India does the “melting pot” simmer more actively than in the northeast, where thousands of people have lost their lives in separatism-related violence over the past sixty years.

The Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC), for one example, is a little-known group claiming to represent the interests of the Garo peoples of Northeastern India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar. While ANVC’s level of operational activity has declined in the past three years, it retains the capability and the intent to pursue its separatist goal of a Garo homeland. While it is reasonable to posit that a large-scale ANVC attack in the Indian capital city is unlikely, trekkers in the Himalayas region could certainly be targeted.

Another such group is the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which seeks to form an independent nation for the Bodo people in the Assam region of present-day northeastern India. Indian authorities estimate that in 1996-1997 alone, the NDFB was responsible for the deaths of over 150 people.

The Dimasa Halam Daoga (DHD) is yet another separatist group operating in the Assam region. When DHD’s predecessor, the Dimasa National Security Force (DNSF), surrendered to Indian authorities in 1995, the DHD made the decision to carry on the fight for independence for the Dimasa people. As recently as January 15th of this year, five people, including a 12-year-old girl, were killed in one incident by Dimasa rebels who opened fire indiscriminantly near a hydro-electric power station. As is the case with other separatist groups in the area, the DHD engages in criminal activities, including extortion, to raise the funds needed to maintain itself. Those criminal activities, in turn, result in more deaths.

The lesson in the foregoing descriptions is that simply because a group is not as well known as Lebanese HizbAllah or al-Qa’ida, they are no less deadly. In fact, separatist groups that harbor deep-seated animosity toward their nation historically have been among the most savage of terrorist groups everywhere. What must be remembered is that, although any one of the foregoing groups might pose a relatively smaller threat to Western interests, the number of such groups in the area multiplies the overall threat.

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