NDFB(S) suspected Assam Adibashis to be police informers: NIA

NEW DELHI: One of the worst massacres in recent history, where 76 tribals were killed in five simultaneous strikes in different parts of Assam last December 23, was executed as NDFB (S) group suspected members of that community leaked information on the group to security forces.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said this in charge-sheets submitted this month into the massacre that also made Home Minister Rajnath Singh visit the violence-affected spots.

"It has been established by this investigation that members of 'Adibashi’ community were specifically targeted through these coordinated attacks on December 23, 2014 because the senior leadership of the NDFB (S) harboured the perception that members of the Adibashi community had been instrumental in providing information about NDFB(S) to the security forces and that it has resulted in significant 'losses' for the organization in anti-terrorist operations conducted by the security forces. This has been substantiated by the confessional statement of a accused," the NIA charge sheet says.

NIA has said that the "orders to kill" came directly from G. Bidai who is "Commander-in-Chief" of NDFB(S) and were conveyed to the 'deputy Commander-in-Chief' of NDFB(S), Binod Mushahary and thereon to the field platoon commanders.

"This is confirmed by the voice recordings from mobile telephony that was lawfully intercepted by Assam Police and duly received under this investigation. The orders (by Bidai) specifically tasked to target members of Adibashi community and fire indiscriminately on their targets including women and children," the NIA charge sheet says. The investigation has been kept open by NIA in the cases as Bidai and Binod are at large.

NIA adds that the attack was part of the larger ideology of the NDFB (S) to strike fear in the minds of the persons of these communities thereby forcing them to migrate.

"The NDFB espouses irredentist and chauvinist goals which include the liberation of 'Bodoland’ from Indian expansion and exploitation and the establishment of a sovereign ' Bodoland'. To achieve its goals, the NDFB has carried out relentless terrorist campaign against Indian security forces and groups of persons it deems as 'outsiders', particularly Muslims and Adibashis resulting in so-called 'Bodoland'. The migration of these communities will facilitate the establishment of a sovereign 'Bodoland', as per the stated goal of the NDFB," the charge-sheet says.