SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2220the Home Ministry’s Central Reserve Police Force and the SOG of the Jammu andKashmir police force used excessive force; however, there were no charges broughtin connection with this use of excessive force. On August 17, militants from Harkatul-JehadeIslami reportedly killed six Hindu villagers and seriously wounded sevenin the Rajouri district in Jammu (see Section 5). According to HRW, on August 18,militants killed three elderly men and a teenage boy, and wounded two other personswhen they fired automatic weapons at civilians in Ind village, Udhampur (seeSection 5). On September 12, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen militantswearing army uniforms entered an army camp at Beerwa, Budgam district,and fired automatic weapons at the sleeping soldiers; 11 soldiers were killed. Twoof the attackers were killed in the ensuing gun battle. In early December, militantskilled two members of a policeman’s family and wounded two others when theybarged into a house in the border district of Poonch and opened fire. Militants alsocarried out attacks on security forces that killed numerous persons (see Section1.g.). On December 22, six militants with concealed weapons entered Delhi’s RedFort, an historic monument that also houses an army unit, during a regularlyscheduled sound and light show for the public. The militants opened fire on thecrowd, killing a soldier and two civilians. The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militant grouplater claimed responsibility for the attack. On December 26, city police raided aDelhi apartment and shot and killed Abu Shamal, whom they claimed to beLashkar-e-Tayyaba militant involved in the Red Fort attack.Killings of security force members by militants in Jammu and Kashmir increasedfor the third year in a row. According to official statistics, 397 security force personnelwere killed in the state during the year. The Ministry of Home Affairs reportedthat 356 security force members were killed in the state in 1999 and that232 members died in Jammu and Kashmir in 1998.Insurgency and increased ethnic violence took a heavy toll in the northeasternstates. Extensive, complex patterns of violence continued in many of the sevennortheastern states. The main insurgent groups in the northeast include two factionsof the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in Nagaland; Meitei extremistsin Manipur; the ULFA and the Bodo security force in Assam; and the AllTripura Tiger Force (ATTF) and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT)in Tripura. The proclaimed objective of many of these groups is to secede from thecountry, creating new, independent nations. Their stated grievances against theGovernment range from charges of neglect and indifference to the widespread povertyof the region, to allegations of active discrimination against the tribal and nontribalpeople of the region by the central Government (see Section 5). The oldest ofthese conflicts, involving the Nagas, dates back to the country’s independence in1947. On August 1, 1997, a ceasefire between the Government and the Isak-Muivahfaction of the NSCN (NSCN-IM) entered into effect. The ceasefire was extended inJanuary until July 31, 2001. In April another Naga insurgent group, the NationalSocialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), announced a formal ceasefire.Security forces were not operating against either of the two NSCN factions and bothgenerally were observing the ceasefire with security forces. However, in April weeklongfighting between the 2 NSCN factions left over 45 persons dead, and 4,500 personswere forced to flee 15 villages in Mon district (see Section 2.d.). Negotiationsto widen the area of application of the ceasefire were handicapped when NSCN(I-M) leader Thuingaleng Muivah was arrested in Thailand on January 19 for travellingon a forged South Korean passport. On August 25, a joint group of Thai andIndian citizens appealed to the central Government to secure the release of theNSCN(IM) leader in the interest of Naga peace talks. He was released on bail inSeptember.Elsewhere in the northeast, Bodo-Santhal ethnic clashes, which began in April1998, continued throughout the year. More than 87,000 persons live under poor conditionsin relief camps in Assam’s Kokrajhar, Gosaigaon, and adjoining districts asa result of the ongoing violence between Bodos and Santhals. The killings of ULFAleaders’ family members during the year renewed concerns about the situation inAssam.Militant groups in Manipur, Tripura, and Assam continued to attack civilians.In Tripura on January 3, the NLFT killed three persons, including Ravi KumarDevbarma, a Communist Party of India (Marxist)CPI(M)-leader, inKashichandrapara. Prior to the April 30 to May 3 elections for the Tripura tribalautonomous district council, ultras (militants) threatened to harm seriously personswho voted in favor of any candidate not belonging to the Indigenous People’s Frontof Tripura (IPFT). During the period before the election, more than 1,500 nontribalfamilies from 3 villages were left homeless as tribals backed by militants intensifiedtheir offensive to cleanse autonomous district council areas of Bengalis. On April 14,the NLFT killed four nontribal villagers in Ramdulapara, north Tripura. Reportedly,VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00064 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.035 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1