>From what I hear, at least at Guwahati, the situation isn't as bad as SB makes it out to be.
--Ram ** ** ** *http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6958188.stm* *A day after heavily-armed guerrillas killed his neighbours, Abhay Ram packed his belongings into a truck and left his home for two decades in Assam's picturesque Karbi Anglong hills. * Many like him have already boarded trains for their ancestral villages in Hindi-speaking states like Bihar to escape the mayhem unleashed by the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) and other tribal militias in the state. More than 30 Hindi-speaking settlers were killed in Karbi Anglong district alone this month. Four times as many of them have died in similar attacks elsewhere in Assam since the beginning of this year. But several hundred kilometres to the north, near the town of Dibrugarh, Shujat Ali is also leaving after being branded an "illegal migrant" from Bangladesh and served with a "notice to leave Assam" by local youth groups. "I don't know where to go? My ancestors may have come from eastern Bengal [now Bangladesh] but I was born in Assam," says Ali, as he boards a train for western Assam. "This is my land, I am no infiltrator, I will not leave this state," he says. *Growing violence * Across the state, Assamese vigilante groups are hounding out the likes of Shujat Ali with renewed gusto. Many are taking shelter in older camps sheltering Muslims displaced in earlier waves of ethnic cleansing. Bombs are also exploding near mosques and in Muslim-dominated areas. "All illegal migrants from Bangladesh have to be expelled from Assam. Otherwise we will launch a huge agitation soon enough," says Sammujal Bhattacharya, the "chief adviser" of the All Assam Students' Union (Aasu), which led a powerful campaign against illegal migrants between 1979-1985. That movement degenerated into fierce ethno-religious bloodletting and left more than 3,000 people dead - almost half of them in a cluster of villages around Nellie. An accord the Aasu signed with the Indian government finally ended the mayhem. "The governments in Delhi and Assam have not implemented the Assam Accord. It has not expelled the infiltrators because they are a big vote bank," thunders Mr Bhattacharya. He has called upon all Assamese to join "one last battle" against the illegal migrants. *Old conflicts * Mr Bhattacharya and his supporters were emboldened by an order of the Indian Supreme Court last December which scrapped a controversial piece of legislation that was seen as a safeguard by the minority groups against arbitrary action by an Assamese-dominated administration. Rich in resources, Assam is India's leading tea-producing state and its third largest producer of oil and natural gas. But it has failed to grow economically because its unending ethno-religious conflicts have kept away investors for nearly 30 years. And now, Assam's old conflicts are threatening to get worse. Even as Assamese and tribal separatists are killing Hindi-speaking settlers to drive them away, powerful student and youth groups in the state are preparing to launch a full-scale campaign to throw out alleged illegal migrants from Bangladesh. And tribal militias continue to fight each other over conflicting homeland visions. But this time, the so-called migrants are determined to fight it out. "The harassment of our people has to stop. Their roots may be in what is now Bangladesh, but almost all of them were born in Assam. So why should they be thrown out," says Badruddin Ajmal, chief of Assam's nascent minority party, the United Democratic Front. *Provoked * The acrimony recently hit fever pitch when one of the UDF's top leaders called for separate autonomous councils for Muslims in western Assam - along the lines of one created for Bodo tribespeople in the state. The UDF distanced itself from the demand but the Assamese groups have been sufficiently provoked. Even the Ulfa, which avoids the shrill anti-Bangladesh rhetoric of other Assamese regional groups and targets the Indian government instead, warned Mr Ajmal "not to play with the sensitive social fabric of Assam". Local journalist and one of the mediators for the Ulfa, Ajit Bhuiyan, blames the Indian government for the current situation. "If a breakthrough had been achieved in the negotiations with the Ulfa, Assam would have returned to the road of peace. But now it is back to square one," he says. Talks broke down last September and military operations were resumed against the Ulfa, which hit back with serial bombings and attacks on Hindi-speakers. Assam's Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, increasingly caught in the crossfire between Assamese radical groups and those representing minorities, has appealed to the Ulfa to return to talks. His invitation has yet to be taken up. And while the UDF accuses Mr Gogoi of trying to crush the party and of failing to protect Muslims, the Assamese groups allege his government is "sacrificing" Assamese identity and turning a blind eye to illegal migration.
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