Violence on decline in Northeast: Kiren Rijiju

The security situation in militancy-hit northeastern states “improved substantially” in 2017 with insurgency incidents declining by 63% as compared to 2014, according to Union home ministry figures.

There were 824 insurgency related incidents in 2014, 574 incidents in 2015, 484 in 2016 and 308 in 2017, Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said in parliament recently in response to a written question from Manipur Lok Sabha MP Dr Thokchom Meinya.

Secretary of the MP mailed the written reply to media persons in Imphal on Wednesday.

According to the data, with 167 cases, Manipur has maximum number of insurgency related incidents among all the NE states in 2017, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (61), Assam (33), Meghalaya (28) and Nagaland (19). Mizoram and Tripura recorded no such incidents.

Besides the civilian casualties has been decreased by 83% (212 in 2014 and 37 in 2017) in the region while casualties of security forces declined by 40% (20 in 2014 and 12 in 2017),it said.

Among the NE states, Manipur has maximum number of civilian (23) and security forces (8) casualties in 2017, followed by Assam (civilian-6,security force-3),Nagaland(civilian-3,security force-1), Arunachal Pradesh (civilian-3), Meghalaya(civilian-2). No report of such casualty in Mizoram and Tripura.

In his reply on February 6, the minister added that the central government has been following a multi-pronged strategy to deal with insurgency situation in the restive region. The multi-pronged strategy includes security related measures and development initiatives.

“The central government has also been following a policy of talks with those groups which abjure the path of violence and seek resolution of their demands peacefully within the framework of the Constitution of India,” Rijiju said.

“The Government of India has appointed representatives/interlocutors to hold talks with such groups,” he added.

Besides, the central government has been supplementing the efforts of the state governments through various measures such as deployment of Central armed police forces, financial assistance for strengthening the state police forces and intelligence agencies, raising of India Reserve Battalions, rehabilitation package for surrendered militants and incurring other security related expenditures, the minister said.