Khardang:
In ULFA's attempt at regrouping, the outfit has gone back to Rabha and Garo villages along the Assam-Meghalaya border to provide them with cover and allow the strategic connection with Bangladesh. Here's a report from Khardang village, which is caught in the clash between militants and security forces.
There have been at least five encounters in recent months in this village alone, the last one on October 10 when Sopen Rabha, a surrendered ULFA cadre, was shot dead in the courtyard of his own house.
Khardang village is not new to this clash. In the same village, there's a house of Tejimala Rabha, wife of ULFA commander Gulit Das.
Tejimala was injured in an encounter and then arrested with arms. She was accompanied by her husband who fled. A harassed family now speaks out.
"It's because the ULFA is in the village, that's why the army raids continue," said Anupriya Rabha, sister of ULFA cadre.
In another incident in the same village, 30-year-old Dhirendra Marak and his four-year-old son were shot dead. Police is yet to file an FIR, because of the peculiarity of these villages. Half of the houses fall in Meghalaya and half in Assam and that makes policing very difficult, the reason why ULFA's 109 battalion has chosen these villages as hotbed of their activity.
"They alleged my son to be an army informer and demanded Rs 50, 000," said Marak, victim's father.
The Rabha community lives on both sides of the international border and is very strategic for the ULFA. The outfit has several Rabha cadres in its rank.
One of its most active leader today, Manoj Rabha alias Dhristi Rajkhowa. controls this corridor. Not just ULFA but till the eighties every Rabha movement was tilted towards Maoist ideology. The only two instances of trained Maoist cadres operating in Assam were Rabha boys.
Rabhas are still actively fighting for an autonomous council under the sixth schedule. And with the state witnessing ethnocentric insurgencies since decades its not improbable that the Rabhas may start asserting themselves aggressively.
"Different organisations can use and are using Rabha people or Rabha youth. That is why we need autonomy here," said Tankeshwar Rabha, president, All Rabha Students Union.