December 2014 Assam violence
| December 2014 Assam violence | |
|---|---|
| Part of Insurgency in Northeast India | |
| Location | Assam, India |
| Date | 23 December 2014 |
| Weapons | AK-series weapons |
| Deaths | > 85 (including retaliatory attacks) |
| Perpetrators | National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit faction) |
In December 2014, a series of attacks by militants resulted in the deaths of more than 76 people in India. The attacks took place in the Chirang, Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts on 23 December 2014. They have been attributed to the Songbijit faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland: NDFB(S).
The tribal people of Assam are mostly tea plantation workers; some of them are the descendants of labourers brought to Assam by the British colonial rulers, while others are relatively recent migrants from other parts of India. The NDFB claims to represent the Bodo people, who are native to Assam; it has fought a secessionist war with the government for the establishment of a sovereign Bodoland. Although a number of NDFB militants had agreed to a ceasefire and peace talks in the 2000s, the NDFB(S) faction led by I K Songbijit has refused to give up militancy.
In May 2014, the government attributed a similar attack on Muslim migrants to NDFB(S). The December attacks, described as one of the worst massacres in the history of North-East India, led to widespread protests by tribal people. The protests turned violent, leading to three more deaths at the hands of the police. The tribal people also killed fourteen Bodos in retaliation. On 26 December, the Government of India declared the launch of Operation All Out to eliminate the Bodo militants and deployed as many as 9,000 soldiers of the Indian Army and the Central Reserve Police Force.
The Bodo people are an indigenous tribe native to Assam in North-East India. The Adivasis, indigenous groups sometimes discriminated against as an aboriginal or lesser indigenous population, belong to the Santhal, Bhil and Munda tribes. These tribes are indigenous to East-Central India, and the Adivasis mainly work as tea plantation workers in tea gardens of Assam. Some of the Adivasis in Assam (mainly the Santhals) are descendants of the tea plantation workers brought to Assam by the British colonial government, while others are recent settlers.
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