Days over for tribal insurgency in Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati, Jan 2: The year 2022 saw the end to tribal insurgency in Assam with so many tribal insurgent groups coming over ground at the instance of the state government and huge quantities of arms and ammunition were deposited by these insurgents.

It was claimed by Assam Chief Minister, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma during his interaction with media on the New Year’s Day.

He informed that 757 guns, 5983 assorted ammunition, 131 grenades, 26 IEDs, and 52 kg explosives were recovered from tribal insurgent groups including NDFB, NLFT, Karbi, Dimasa, and Adivasi rebels.

The majority of the arms recovered in 2022 were surrendered suo moto by the rebels, the Chief Minister informed reporters on the first day of 2023.

"We recovered the most number weapons in a single year in the history of the state. The recovery of 757 guns in just one year heralds the end of Assam's tribal insurgency "he stated.

In 2022, the state government negotiated many peace treaties with various ethnic insurgent groups.

The Centre has already withdrawn the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from a vast chunk of Assam in 2022 where the situation has improved a lot.

The government stated that the decision was made following a recent evaluation of the law and order and security scenario in Assam, which revealed that the situation has significantly improved in many districts of the state and the presence of extremist elements is limited to specific parts of the state.

The draconian AFSPA, which allows security personnel to conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without a warrant, has been in force throughout Assam since 1990.