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Assam terror bombing trail leads to NDFB

NEW DELHI: Evidence has emerged that a hit-team of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) executed the October 30 serial bombings in Assam — evidence which undermines earlier claims that the Bangladesh-based Harkat ul-Jihad-Islami (HuJI) was responsible for the murderous attacks.

Seventy-seven people were killed in the bombings.

Assam Police investigators have determined that two of the three Maruti 800 cars used as bombs were purchased by the NDFB cadre less than six weeks before the attacks. Based on the interrogation of suspects linked to the fabrication of the car-bombs, investigators now believe that orders to initiate the operation were issued by NDFB founder-chief Rajan Daimary in September.

Daimary, who is believed to shuttle between Bangkok, Manila and Singapore, is believed to have authorised the attacks to signal frustration at the lack of progress in talks between the NDFB and the government of India.

In May this year, NDFB leaders had released a charter of demands for talks with the Union government. No progress was made in talks, though, because of fears that concessions to the NDFB could complicate efforts to bring about a separate dialogue with the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).

While senior NDFB leaders like Govinda Basumtary continued to support the ceasefire — a controversial agreement has allowed organisation’s cadre to conduct extortion and kidnapping operations with impunity —Daimary overruled them and ordered a large-scale, demonstrative attack.

Daimary has a long history of sanctioning brutal attacks against civilians. In October, 2004, at least 12 people were killed in attacks on targets that included crowded markets in the towns of Dhekiajhuli, Gouripur and Bijni.

Formed in October 1986, the NDFB — until 1994 known as the Bodo Security Force — seeks a sovereign state north of the Brahmaputra river.

Following offensive operations by Bhutan’s military in December 2003, the organisation suffered serious reverses. Its key ideologue, B. Irakdao, was reported missing following the operations. Bhutan also handed over the head of the NDFB’s central headquarters, Udang K.R. Brahma, to India in June 2004. Nileswar Baswumatary, who handled the NDFB’s finances surrendered to the Assam Police in March 2004, while the terror group’s deputy commander, Bijoy Boro, was deported from Bangkok later that year.

Police sources said that the ULFA appeared to have provided infrastructural support to the operation, in the form of explosives and logistical aid. “While the NDFB was assigned last-mile responsibility for the operation,” a senior Assam Police officer said, “it seems that ULFA did much of the back-office work”.

Like Daimary, ULFA’s Bangladesh-based chief Paresh Baruah has been seeking means to demonstrate his organisation’s reach and lethality.

In recent years, ULFA’s military capabilities have been severely degraded, with the decimation of the organisation’s 28 Battalion in sustained counter-terrorism operations. Leaders of two of the 28 Battalion’s three companies, Alpha and Charlie, were seeking to bring about a ceasefire along with pro-dialogue elements in ULFA’s still-potent 709 and 27 Battalions—an effort, police believe, that Baruah hoped to scuttle by co-sponsoring the serial bombings.

Some in India’s intelligence services believe the NDFB executed the bombings on behalf of Islamists in Bangladesh.

On Saturday, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi appeared to endorse that perception, describing Bangladesh as “our biggest threat.” “Assam is the most vulnerable State”, Mr. Gogoi said, “in regard to terror attacks from Bangladeshi soil. It is the main problem as a large number of terrorist groups there help our local outfits.”

Speculation that HuJI may have been responsible for the bombings was built, in part, on signs that the Islamist terror group was planning attacks to retaliate against recent anti-Muslim violence in Assam. In September, the Army had shot dead seven suspected HuJI operatives in a shootout near Boraibari village, 30 km from the India-Bangladesh border in Assam’s Dhubri district.

However, no hard evidence has so far emerged to support the proposition that either the NDFB or ULFA acted on behalf of Islamist terror groups such as HuJI, or Islamists within Bangladesh’s external covert service, the Directorate-General of Field Intelligence.

Police say a text message sent to a local television station, claiming responsibility for the bombings on behalf of the until-then unknown Islamist group called the Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahideen, turned out to be a hoax.

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