ULFA GOES ON A KILLING SPREE AGAINST HINDU "OUTSIDERS"

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CALCUTTA 000010 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER ASEC PGOV IN BG PREL PBTS PHUM PINR SUBJECT: ULFA GOES ON A KILLING SPREE AGAINST HINDU "OUTSIDERS" REF: A) 06 CALCUTTA 0362, B) 06 CALCUTTA 0481, C) 06 CALCUTTA 0509 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Over the January 5-7 weekend, ethnic insurgent separatists from the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) carried out a string of attacks in remote areas of Assam, killing more than 65 people. The majority of attacks targeted migrant Bihari workers from India's Hindi- speaking heartland, and comes in the run up to India's Republic Day on January 26 and the 33rd Indian National Games slated to take place in Assam, February 9-18. ULFA's apparent return to its ideological roots by targeting non-Assamese in the state is aimed at altering public perception of ULFA as simply another violent criminal organization. However, ULFA's use of camps in neighboring Bangladesh and acceptance of Bangladeshi migrants living in Assam undermines the pretense of its claimed agenda for ethnic purity in the state. The violence is continuing, and prospects for a resumption of peace talks are slim, as GOI officials have called emergency meetings and are responding with increased troop levels to maintain security. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) January 5-8, in the Northeast Indian of Assam, members of the ethnic insurgent group ULFA killed more than 65 primarily Hindi-speaking migrants from India's Eastern state of Bihar. The killings took place in remote, Eastern areas of Assam in the Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Dhemaji, Sibsagar and Kokrajhar districts. Media reported Friday and Saturday's attacks as follows: -- In the Bandarkhati village in Tinsukia, an ULFA attack killed two people. -- At Longsowal, insurgents fired indiscriminately into a crowd, killing three. -- In Daisajan Holoukhowa Govindapur Basti, four armed youths on motorcycles fired upon a village defense party. -- At Dighalitarang Tiniali one person died in a grenade attack. -- At Tingrai Chariali, a group of about 10 insurgents armed with sophisticated weapons fired on 11 brick kiln workers, four of whom died on the spot. -- At Borhat Govindapur in Sibsagar, ULFA killed three more brick kiln workers. -- ULFA killed 13 persons - all dairy farmers -- at Ghoramora Chapori. -- ULFA killed two persons at Bijlibon in the Tinsukia district. -- A 12 member gang of masked ULFA members gunned down six dairy farmers at Sakia chaperon located on the border of the Dibrugarh and Dhemaji districts. -- Other attacks by ULFA throughout the districts killed 16. ¶3. (SBU) The attacks continued on Sunday, as ULFA militants killed 15 Hindi-speaking people and injured 10 others in four separate attacks hours after Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal visited Assam in response to the stepped up violence: -- In Sibsagar, seven migrants from the state of Bihari died and three were injured when ULFA insurgents called them out of their homes at Borali Bari near Mahmara and opened fire. -- In Dibrugarh district, six Hindi-speaking persons were killed and one injured in an attack by militants at Chokolia. -- Three ULFA members on motorcycles fired indiscriminately with sophisticated weapons at workers at a brick kiln at Sepon Chagolia in Moran area of the same district. A worker died on the spot while six others were injured. One of the wounded later succumbed to his injuries. CALCUTTA 00000010 002 OF 002 -- In Kokrajhar district in lower Assam, ULFA terrorists shot and injured a teenaged Hindi-speaking boy in Kochugaon. ¶4. (SBU) The violence continued on Monday, January 8 with an addition two Hindi speakers being killed in Golaghat. Initial media reports indicate the beginnings of an exodus of Bihari and Hindi-speaking migrants from Assam back to mainland India. Calcutta Chief of Police told ConGen he was concerned about potential violence by Biharis against ethnic Assamese. (Note: In 2003, ULFA killed more than 60 migrants from Bihar following a highly publicized dispute in Assam over Bihari recruitment into the railways system. Afterwards, Biharis responded by pulling passengers with ethnic Assamese features off of trains, killing the men and raping the women. End note.) ¶5. (SBU) Speculation about the motives behind the attacks is wide-ranging. The killings started a day after Union Home Secretary V. N. Duggal visited Assam to review security and SIPDIS declared Assam safe for the National Games -- India's biggest sporting event -- that are scheduled for February 9-18. Over the past few months, ULFA has urged spectators and competitors to boycott the games, but the GOI has insisted it will not let the event be disrupted. ULFA has been battered by stepped up military operations after peace talks failed last September and blames Duggal for the failure of efforts to restart talks. However, the increased military activity has not stopped the level of violence from rising (reftels). The weekend's attacks come after Indian security forces killed five senior ULFA members last week. According to security analyst Ajai Sahni, the weekend's violence is an attempt to cash in on "anti-outsider" feeling among the ethnic Assamese who are agitated over the fact that up to two million people in Assam are unemployed. An intelligence official in Assam told post that the killings are in retaliation against the Army's increased security operations. An Inspector General of the Assam Police said that the attacks are a "political message" to the GOI owing to the breakdown of talks. He added that ULFA was able to take advantage of the porous border with Bangladesh to receive logistical support from militant camps located across the border and, he claimed, from Muslim fundamentalists. ¶6. (SBU) Comment: ULFA appears to be re-asserting its ideological, anti-outsider position to "reconnect" with its traditional ethnic Assamese base and to show its strength. Tellingly, though, all the attacks occurred in remote areas far removed from urban centers, in locales with limited security presence -- some incidents took place on Assam's border with Arunachal Pradesh state, where ULFA's 28th battalion is camped. In addition, ULFA did not target Bangladeshis, whose numbers have grown significantly in Assam over the last 30 years and potentially represent a greater threat to Assamese identity than the Bihari and Hindi-speaking migrants. Key ULFA leaders live in Bangladesh and the targeting of Indian interlopers as opposed to Bangladeshis seems a strong indication that ULFA has links with Bangladesh that it does not want to jeopardize even at the risk of ideological inconsistency. ¶7. (SBU) Comment Continued: Many Ethnic Assamese have long resented the presence of "outsiders" in their state, and this sentiment has increased as the unemployment rate and the population pressure on the land grows. At its formation, ULFA capitalized on this sentiment but in recent years has lost much of its popular support by turning more toward extortion, theft, and kidnapping. With the annual Republic Day celebrations coming on January 26, and the National Games very soon in February, ULFA is likely timing its attacks to reassert itself during a sensitive period. The Assam government has requested additional forces from Delhi to control the security situation and more violence is expected. End comment. JARDINE