The United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I), the oldest and the largest insurgent outfit from the state, is not a tribal or ethnic rebel outfit — it’s the only outfit with a pan-Assam presence and with no specific ethnic affiliation. It has refused to sit for peace talks despite several overtures from the Centre and the Assam government. It remains the lone hurdle to end insurgency — that is, if another new outfit doesn’t take birth.

Insurgency in Assam started in April 1979 with the formation of ULFA—as an offshoot of the anti-foreigner's agitation against the inflow of immigrants to the state from Bangladesh (former East Pakistan). The stated aim of the outfit was to create an independent Assam. According to the Assam Accord of 1985 and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), anyone entering Assam from Bangladesh without valid documents after March 24, 1971, is considered an illegal immigrant.

A decade later, the Bodo Security Force (BSF) was formed in the areas of lower Assam. The outfit, which represented the Bodo community, sought to create an independent Bodo nation.

This was followed by the emergence of many outfits of different communities with diverse goals. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), maintained by the non-profit Institute for Conflict Management, Assam had 60 different terror outfits at one point.

The long road to peace

In 1993, the Centre signed a peace treaty with the BSF. However, soon after that, other Bodo outfits like the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), with its own factions, and the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) emerged.

In February, 2011, ULFA split into two groups—one, led by chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, decided to give up its violent past and sit for talks with Centre without any condition and another, led by commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, which decided against talks and rebranded as ULFA-Independent.

Last month, the Union home ministry sent a draft agreement to the pro-talks faction of ULFA, 12 years after the group gave up violence and agreed to sit for talks without any pre-condition. This is not to say that the previous governments did not make attempts: backroom parleys went on for years, however, nothing concrete materialised.

“We have received a copy of the draft proposal sent by the Centre and are in the process of discussing it amongst ourselves,” said Anup Chetia, general secretary of the pro-talks faction of ULFA.

“Once that is complete, we will send our views on the draft along with the changes we seek to the Centre through the intermediary for the talks. If our views are accommodated, the agreement can be signed in May itself,” he added.

Chetia refused to divulge details of the draft stating that it’s a confidential document and its contents can’t be disclosed.

The only other major outfit that is yet to sign a peace deal is the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO). In January, Jiban Singha, the chief of this outfit, entered India from Myanmar along with 17 of his associates. Though the group is yet to announce a ceasefire, KLO is in talks with officials. The outfit is inactive at present and if talks proceed well, a deal could be inked soon.

In recent years, another outfit called KLO (DL) (it is as yet unclear what the last two letters of this breakaway faction opposed to peace talks stands for) had emerged. But Assam police have informed that 24 of its sympathisers have been arrested and two killed in encounters. The outfit is stated to be “almost neutralised”. There are four other outfits, three Kuki groups and one comprising people from the Hmar community, who have been in ceasefire since 2012—but no formal peace deal has been signed with them.

“At present not more than 200 active cadres of ULFA-I are present in Myanmar where the group has its base and camps. There have been offers for talks from the Centre and state government, but the rebel outfit has remained adamant on their demand for including sovereignty in the peace talks. But since the government doesn’t agree to such demands, talks have not taken place,” said a senior state government official.

Officials maintain that though ULFA-I had gained some traction among youths in past few years and that led to a rise in fresh recruits, the trend has changed in recent months and the outfit has seen many reverses.

“In May, 2021 citing the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason, ULFA-I announced a unilateral ceasefire for three months. The group extended it by another three months in November the same year. In the meantime, the outfit’s chief Paresh Baruah started giving audio bytes to local news channels expressing his views on the diverse range of issues,” said the official.

“Since there was a buzz around that time that a peace agreement could be signed with the outfit soon, some youth felt they might get a good deal and started leaving for Myanmar to join ULFA-I. Once there, they realised that life in the jungles was very harsh. But when they tried to return home, they were prevented and even killed on some occasions,” he added.

As per intelligence inputs, in the past 10-12 years, the ULFA-I leadership has killed nearly 20 cadres who tried to escape from its camps in Myanmar.

Police say ULFA-I had used social media platforms like Facebook to propagate its ideology and try and enlist fresh cadres. But Assam police were able to track these accounts, get in touch with the social media platforms and pull down the pages.

A brief history of peace talks

In January 2000, a fresh peace accord was signed with four factions of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and 4,209 active cadres laid down arms. This was followed by another deal with Karbi rebel outfits in Karbi Anglong in September 2021 and surrender of 1926 cadres. A year later, eight Adivasi groups also inked a peace deal and 1,100 cadres joined mainstream.

As per Assam police records, in the past two years, police and security forces have apprehended 421 cadres of different rebel outfits, recovered 114 sophisticated weapons and more than 5,000 ammunition rounds.

Once they give up arms, cadres of these outfits are rehabilitated under provisions of two separate schemes from Centre and the state government (rolled out in April 2018 and March 2019, respectively). As per the Central scheme, surrendered cadres get ₹4 lakh in fixed deposit and ₹6,000 per month for three years. Under the state scheme, those who give up arms get a one-time settlement amount of ₹1.5 lakh.

Besides the cash component, cadres are provided with vocational skills by various government agencies to enable them to start their own businesses. There’s also a 2% reservation in state government jobs for surrendered cadres who fulfill all eligibility requirements pertaining to age, educational qualifications and physical ability.

“Our view is very clear. Whoever holds the gun will have to surrender before sitting for talks. Once that happens, we will provide them financial help, training and patronage from state government agencies. But if someone tries to reorganise themselves and pick up guns again, they would be handled very strictly,” said Hiren Nath, Additional DGP (Special Branch).