GUWAHATI: The well-planned ambush on security personnel by National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) guerillas in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district once again proved that the entire efforts of the Government to contain the insurgent forces have become a cropper, particularly in view of the fact that the unfortunate BSP jawans were politically lured into the militants’ stranglehold like a mouse into a trap.

Detailed reports pouring in from the spot said that the NSCN (Muirah faction) had earlier in the day hijacked a civilian vehicle from the Maibong -Laisong road and then waited in ambush for the security forces to arrive in search of the kidnapped persons.

The security forces went out as anticipated a BSF team led by Sanatn Borah, officer in charge of the Nahur police station of the Assam Police, and no sooner had they entered village Achalu, inhabited by a Naga tribe, they were greeted with uninterrupted gunshots, most of them understandably rolling out from automatic machine guns.

The search operation, which was started, however, was carried out from three directions, and it was only the smaller contingent led by the Assam Police officer, which came face to face with the militants waiting for them, The batch apparently found little time to retaliate, which was the major reason behind the heavy casualties.

The state home department here incidentally said that the actual number of security men killed was only six, including the Assam Police officer Borah, while the driver of the security vehicle, a civilian, was the seventh person killed in the attack. Initial reports had put the death figure at 14, and that was due to the first report sent in by one of the wounded jawans, it was learned,

A total number of about 70 BSF jawans who were pressed into service to comb the area, however, could not make any breakthrough in the first 24 hours, and the militant are believed to have es~ caped gleefully after their task, decamping with the security forces’ weapons. Sources said the militants must have escaped into Nagaland or Manipur, both the states hardly 50 km from Mahur. ‘The NSCN ambush is clearly a revenge for the recent smashing of its general headquarters at Pulomi, inside Nagaland. Pulomi is hardly 100 km from Mahur. That attack on the GHQ of the Muivah faction of the NSCN was conducted by para-commandos of the Army, backed up by the Assam Rifles, one of the most active paramilitary outfits engaged in anti-insurgency operations in the Northeast.

That operation, which started on July 22 and lasted for more than two days, had seen the smashing of 5S neatly constructed huts, when a self-styled It. of the guerillas was reportedly killed and among the seven casualties on the militants side. Two Army jawans were also killed in that operation.

Pulomi is connected to Manir in Assam by a graveled road through thick jungles and mountains, Mihur is also adjacent to Manipur’s, where the security forces had carried out a major operation to crush the then general headquarters of the NSCN. That was in June 1990, soon after the formation of the Indo-Burma Revolutionary Front (IBRF), a common forum of several separatist forces of the Northeast. The ULFA is also a partner of the IBRF.

The June, 1990 crackdown was avenged by the militants in the form of an ambush of the Nagaland State Assembly Speaker’s convoy again inside Assam territory, when the speaker was on his way to his home district to participate in the Independence day celebrations. The speaker had a miraculous escape, while 10 jawans of the Nagaland armed police were killed on the spot.

This year, on June 12, the NSCN struck again, and that was at Lanyie the June 1992 flash-back was 14.

Going by statistics, the MSCN now tops the list of insurgent groups operating in the country’s north-eastern region as far as the number of security men killed is concerned, and the Union Home Ministry had only recently informed the Lok Sabha that the NSCN had alone claimed the lives of 55 security personnel inside Nagaland during 1991-92.

It may be recalled that the police chiefs of the seven northeastern states had discussed the interstate activities of the insurgent groups here only in June, where a top secret joint strategy was drawn up to comb at the militants. The interstate movement of the insurgent groups had often landed the security agencies of the states in dilemma, particularly in view of the protocol involved in inter-state movement of state police.

With the incident, more details of which are still awaited by the State Government here, the efforts   carry out concerted strategies by different states against militant bodies had received a severe jolt, and thrown a challenge to the security planners. Poor communication facilities, inadequate road links and lack of proper anticipation had already exposed the security set-up, while the number of incidents credited to the militants, particularly the NSCN are on the increase.

Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 21, 1992