At least 8,000 insurgents in northeast have surrendered since 2014, sources said
New Delhi:
The historic signing of the peace deal with Manipur’s oldest valley-based armed group UNLF brings into focus the Centre’s huge success in bringing peace and development to the northeast region, sources have said.
The scale of violence has also reduced drastically in the past nine years, compared to the decade before 2014, data shows.
Between 2004 and 2014, the northeast saw 11,121 violent incidents, which fell by 73 per cent to 3,033 between 2014 and 2023. Some 458 security personnel were killed in action between 2004 and 2014, while the casualties fell by 72 per cent in the past nine years; 2,625 civilians were killed in violence in the northeast between 2004 and 2014, while in the past nine years the deaths fell by 86 per cent to 356.
The Centre released Rs 2,878 crore to the northeast as reimbursement of security-related expenses by the state governments in the past nine years, or the two terms of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources said.
At least 8,000 insurgents have surrendered since 2014, sources said.
The Centre has signed nine key peace agreements during this period – Achik National Volunteer Council agreement (2014), National Liberation Front of Twipra (Sabir Kumar Debbarma) of 2019, Bru Accord (2020), Bodo Accord (2020), Karbi Accord (2021), Tribal Peace Agreement (2022), Dimasa National Liberation Army Agreement (2023), Assam-Meghalaya Interstate Border Agreement (2022), and the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh Inter-State Boundary Agreement (2023).
The scope of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or AFSPA, has also been reduced in many parts of the northeast as peace returned gradually.
Over 70 per cent of Assam is out of the AFSPA’s cover now. In Manipur, 19 police station areas in seven districts have been kept out of the Disturbed Area tag as these places have seen stability in recent years.
In Arunachal Pradesh, AFSPA remains only in three districts and three police station areas in another district. In Nagaland, the Disturbed Area notification has been removed from 18 police station areas in eight districts.
AFSPA has been removed completely from Tripura and Meghalaya.
