Insurgency in Meghalaya (original) (raw)

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Insurgency in Meghalaya
Part of Insurgency in Northeast India
Map of Meghalaya
Date1992–presentLocationMeghalayaResult Ongoing (Low level insurgency) Partial demobilization of various groups Peace talks with rebel groups and violence reduction in the area[6] No incidents reported causing fatalities since 2019.[7]
Belligerents
India Indian Armed Forces Flag of Central Reserve Police Forces CRPF Border Security Force SULFA[1][2] Supported by: Bangladesh Bangladesh Khasi Nationalists: HNLCHPLF (until 2005) Garo Nationalists: ANLA (until 2015)GNLA (until 2018)ANVC (until 2004)ANVC-RM (until 2019)AMEF (until 2015)ATF (until 2015)UALA (until 2021)LAEF (until 2017)PLF-M (until 2010)ANSD (until 2002)ASAK (until 2017)UANF (until 2007) Supported by: ULFANDFB (until 2020)NSCN[3][4][5]
Commanders and leaders
India Droupadi Murmu(President) India Jagdeep Dhankhar(Vice President) India Narendra Modi(Prime Minister) India Amit Shah(Minister of Home Affairs) India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar(Ministry of External Affairs) Anish Dayal Singh(Director General) Anil Chauhan(Chief of Defence Staff) Manoj Pande(Chief of the Army Staff) M. V. Suchindra Kumar(Vice Chief of the Army Staff) R. Hari Kumar(Chief of the Naval Staff) Dinesh K Tripathi(Vice Chief of the Naval Staff) Vivek Ram Chaudhari(Chief of the Air Staff) Amar Preet Singh(Vice Chief of the Air Staff) Nitin Agarwal(Director general of police) Rajnath Singh(Minister of Defence) Giridhar Aramane(Defence Secretary) Bangladesh Shahabuddin Chuppu (President) Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina (Prime Minister) Former: India Shankar Dayal Sharma India K. R. Narayanan India A. P. J. Abdul Kalam India Pratibha Patil India Pranab Mukherjee India Ram Nath Kovind India Krishan Kant India Bhairon Singh Shekhawat India Mohammad Hamid Ansari India Venkaiah Naidu India H. D. Deve Gowda India Inder Kumar Gujral India Atal Bihari Vajpayee India Manmohan Singh Murli Manohar Joshi Indrajit Gupta L. K. Advani Shivraj Patil P. Chidambaram Sushilkumar Shinde Sikander Bakht Jaswant Singh Yashwant Sinha Natwar Singh S. M. Krishna Salman Khurshid Sushma Swaraj M B Kaushal M N Sabharwal Trinath Mishra S C Chaube Jyoti Kumar Sinha S I S Ahmed V K Joshi A S Gill Vikram Srivastava K. Vijay Kumar Pranay Sahay Dilip Trivedi Prakash Mishra K. Durga Prasad R. R. Bhatnagar Anand Prakash Maheshwari Kuldiep Singh Dr.Sujoy Lal Thaosen Bipin Rawat Shankar Roychowdhury Ved Prakash Malik Sundararajan Padmanabhan Nirmal Chander Vij J. J. Singh Deepak Kapoor V. K. Singh Bikram Singh Dalbir Singh Suhag Bipin Rawat Manoj Mukund Naravane Ved Prakash Malik Chandra Shekhar Vijay Oberoi Nirmal Chander Vij Shantonu Choudhry Bhupinder Singh Thakur S. Pattabhiraman Deepak Kapoor Milan Lalitkumar Naidu Noble Thamburaj Prabodh Chandra Bhardwaj Arvinder Singh Lamba S. K. Singh Dalbir Singh Suhag Philip Campose Man Mohan Singh Rai Bipin Rawat Sarath Chand Devraj Anbu Manoj Mukund Naravane Satinder Kumar Saini Chandi Prasad Mohanty Manoj Pande B. S. Raju Vishnu Bhagwat Sushil Kumar Madhvendra Singh Arun Prakash Sureesh Mehta Nirmal Kumar Verma Devendra Kumar Joshi Robin K. Dhowan Sunil Lanba Karambir Singh Sushil Kumar P. J. Jacob Madhvendra Singh John Colin De Silva Arun Prakash Yashwant Prasad Venkat Bharathan Nirmal Kumar Verma R. P. Suthan D. K. Dewan Robin K. Dhowan Sunil Lanba Parasurama Naidu Murugesan Karambir Singh Ajit Kumar P G. Ashok Kumar Satishkumar Namdeo Ghormade Sanjay Jasjit Singh Satish Sareen Anil Yashwant Tipnis Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy Shashindra Pal Tyagi Fali Homi Major Pradeep Vasant Naik Norman Anil Kumar Browne Arup Raha Birender Singh Dhanoa R. K. S. Bhadauria Trevor Raymond Joseph Osman Anil Yashwant Tipnis Prithvi Singh Brar Vinod Patney Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy Satish Govind Inamdar Michael McMahon Sunil Kumar Malik Ajit Bhavnani B. N. Gokhale Pradeep Vasant Naik Pranab Kumar Barbora Norman Anil Kumar Browne Krishan Kumar Nohwar Dinesh Chandra Kumaria Arup Raha Ravi Kant Sharma Birender Singh Dhanoa Shirish Baban Deo Anil Khosla R. K. S. Bhadauria Harjit Singh Arora Vivek Ram Chaudhari Sandeep Singh A.K. Tandon E. N. Rammohan Gurbachan Singh Jagat Ajay Raj Sharma Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary A.K. Mitra M.L. Kumawat Raman Srivastava U.K. Bansal Subhash Joshi D.K. Pathak K.K. Sharma Rajni Kant Mishra V.K. Johri Surjeet Singh Deswal Rakesh Asthana Pankaj Kumar Singh Sujoy Lal Thaosen Pramod Mahajan Mulayam Singh Yadav George Fernandes Jaswant Singh A. K. Antony Arun Jaitley Manohar Parrikar Nirmala Sitharaman T. K. Banerjee Ajit Kumar T. R. Prasad Yogendra Narain Subir Dutta Ajay Prasad Ajai Vikram Singh Shekhar Dutt Vijay Singh Pradeep Kumar Shashi Kant Sharma R. K. Mathur G. Mohan Kumar Sanjay Mitra Ajay Kumar Bangladesh Shahabuddin Ahmed Bangladesh Abdur Rahman Biswas Bangladesh Badruddoza Chowdhury Bangladesh Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar Bangladesh Iajuddin Ahmed Bangladesh Zillur Rahman Bangladesh Mohammad Abdul Hamid Bangladesh Muhammad Habibur Rahman Bangladesh Khaleda Zia Bangladesh Fazlul Haque Bangladesh Fakhruddin Ahmed Julius Dorphang (HNLC) (POW) William Sangma (ACAK) (POW) Pollendro Marak (PLF-M)[3][4][8]Chesterfield Thangkhiew (HNLC) Drishti Rajkhowa (ULFA) Surrendered
Strength
10,000 Police Personnel 70 (GNLA)[9]
Casualties and losses
118 killed[10] 339 killed 588 captured[10]
264 civilians killed[3][10]

The Insurgency in Meghalaya is a frozen armed conflict between India and a number of separatist rebel groups which was taking place in the state of Meghalaya. The Insurgency in Meghalaya is part of the wider Insurgency in Northeast India, and was fueled by demands of the Khasi, Synteng and Garo people for a separate state.[3]

The state of Meghalaya was separated from the state of Assam in 1971, in order to satisfy the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo for a separate state. The decision was initially praised as an example of successful national integration into the wider Indian state.[11]

This, however, failed to prevent the rise of national consciousness among the local tribal populations. This later led to a direct confrontation between Indian nationalism and the newly created Garo and Khasi nationalisms. A parallel rise of nationalism in the other members of the Seven Sister States further complicated the situation, resulting in occasional clashes between fellow rebel groups.[11]

The state wealth distribution system further fueled the rising separatist movements, as funding is practiced through per capita transfers, which largely benefits the leading ethnic group.[11]

Starting in the 1980s, bands of violent groups began to form in the region, mostly in opposition to the non-tribal Dkhars and their perceived threat to jobs and demographics in the state.[12]

The first militant outfit to emerge in the region was the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council (HALC). It was formed in 1992 by Julius Dorphang, who would become the outfit's chairman, as well as John Kharkrang and Cheristerfield Thangkhiew. It aimed to protect the interests of Meghalaya's indigenous population from the rise of non-tribal ("Dkhar") immigration.[13][3]

Tensions between Garos and Khasis soon led to a split in the HALC. The Garo dominated Achik Matgrik Liberation Army (AMLA) would splinter off, while Dorphang, Kharkrang, and Thangkhiew would meet to rename the joint Synteng-Khasi alliance left in the HALC to the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC). AMLA passed into obscurity, while Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC) took its place. The GaroKhasi drift persisted as HNLC had set up the goal of turning Meghalaya into an exclusively Khasi region, ANVC on the other hand sought out the creation of an independent state in the Garo Hills.[3][13]

A number of non Meghalayan separatist groups have also operated in the region, including the United Liberation Front of Assam and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland among others.[4]

GNLA had more or less been neutralised in the aftermath of Operation Hill Storm between July 2014 and September 2016.The last killing linked to GNLA was reported on February 24, 2018, when the then 'commander-in-chief' of GNLA, Sohan D. Shira, was killed in an encounter by Meghalaya Police at Dobu A'chakpek in the East Garo Hills District.

After Mass surrender and disbandment of ULFA and NDFB, insurgency in Meghalaya has been finished for good. Most major Garo militants have also either been killed or have surrendered.[14]

A 2014 list of Meghalaya's most wanted militants

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