GUWAHATI
Lured via social media platforms, youths in Assam continue to join extremist groups despite a slew of peace pacts with such outfits since 2014.
A fortnight ago, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had listed the Bodo Accord of January 2020, Karbi agreement of April 2021, and suspension of operations with the pro-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) as factors for a significant dip in extremism and violence in the State.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who holds the Home portfolio in the State, told the 126-member Assam Assembly that 1,561 young men and women had joined at least five extremist groups since 2016. These groups are the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), the People’s Democratic Council of Karbi Longri (PDCK), the ULFA, and the United People’s Revolutionary Front.
Said to have been disbanded, the NDFB and its factions were signatories to the Bodo Accord. So was the PDCK after the Karbi pact.
Replying to a question from Congress leader Debabrata Saikia, Mr. Sarma said the extremist groups, specifically the ULFA (Independent) headed by the fugitive Paresh Baruah, have been brainwashing youths with propaganda via Facebook, Messenger and Twitter.
Social media sites monitored by the Assam Police under the Cyberdrome Project helped identify 990 “objectionable posts” by such brainwashed youths during the 2021-22 fiscal, the Chief Minister said.
“A hundred cases were registered across the State on such posts and 85 people were arrested while 581 others were counselled in the presence of their parents. Moreover, 400 posts were removed from the social media platforms,” he said.
Since 2016, the State Police arrested 84 others for involvement in ‘jihadi’ activities and 10 of them were engaged as teachers of various madrassas, Mr. Sarma said.
Forty of these 84 people were members of Ansarullah Bangla Team, 35 of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, and nine of Hizbul Mujahideen, he added.
In reply to another question by suspended Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed, the Chief Minister said 19 extremists died in 12 encounters with the police from January 2021 to September 4, 2022.
Replying to an unrelated question, the Chief Minister said there was no separate or exclusive budget for running the six transit camps — detention centres for declared foreigners — in Assam. “Their expenditure is incurred from the jail budget,” he said.
Each transit camp is within a Central Jail.
