Centre concerned over NE violence

NEW DELHI, April 26: Unabated violence in the Northeast took a heavy toll on civilians leaving over 900 persons dead last year, the Union Home Secretary, Kamal Pande reported. The intensity of violence continued to be high in the Northeast, and a total of 1960 incidents of violence were recorded leading to 1657 deaths including 165 security personnel and 585 militants. Significantly, the home secretary held the ULFA, instead of the Assam Tiger Force (ATF) responsible for the attacks on Hindi-speaking Assamese and the non-Assamese people that led to the killing of 89 persons in 12 such attacks. The home secretary, who was making his submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Ministry informed that the States of Assam, Tripura and Manipur were the worst affected, ones, while Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya were comparatively less affected. However, the members of the committee expressed concern at the unabated extortions by the NSCN(IM) despite the Centre and the Naga outfit signing ceasefire agreement. The Parliamentary Committee suggested to the Ministry that affective steps should be taken to provide relief to the people exposed to extortions. It also asked the Centre to take up the issue with the outfit during its talks for revision of the ground rules of the ceasefire. There are reports that extortions are going on in such a manner that it is very hard to detect it. The fear of being killed by the extortionists defers the people from reporting the cases of extortion to the police. As a result, the people have little alternative but to shell out their hard earned money. Government employees in particular are the targets of these extortionists, the committee observed. The home secretary further reported that activities of the NSCN(IM) in Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh were a matter of concern, and the two districts were declared disturbed under the Armed Forces special powers Act. As for the situation in Meghalaya, the Ministry official said the situation in the state took a turn for the worse last year and the Centre banned the two outfits viz, the ANVC and the HNLC. The home secretary said a 26-point action central plan was under implementation in Manipur to tide over the crisis created by subversion of government machinery and a political stalemate. The Centre was closely monitoring the situation in Tripura, the home secretary added.