Guwahati, July 30: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday announced that the non-heinous crime cases against the surrendered cadres of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) will be disposed of soon and all NIA cases will be transferred to the police.
Sarma also said that the Assam government will spend Rs 160 crore to rehabilitate the surrendered militants of all the factions of the erstwhile dreaded insurgent group, NDFB.
"He said that the non-heinous crime cases pending against the NDFB cadres would be disposed of very soon and the Government would also transfer all the cases pending with NIA to Government of Assam to make a congenial peace," a statement from the Chief Minister's Office said. Sarma said that disgruntled groups, which so far kept themselves away from the peace process, now have started coming back to the mainstream to help the government in establishing permanent peace in the Bodo areas.
"He said that the surrendered cadres of NDFB would also be absorbed in various government vacancies in accordance with essential and desired qualifications," as per the statement. Speaking at the programme at Goibari in Basugaon of Chirang district to pay homage to former ABSU president Jwhwlao Swmbla Basumatary, who was assassinated in 1996, Sarma said that the government will pay an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the next of the kin of those killed in the Bodoland movement.
On January 27 last year, All Bodo Students Union (ABSU), United Bodo People's Organisation (UBPO) and all the factions of the NDFB signed a peace accord with the government, providing political and economic bonanza to the Bodoland region sans a separate state or Union territory. Following the agreement, which was the third in the Bodoland region, a total of 1,615 cadres from all the factions of NDFB had surrendered on January 30, 2020 and deposited their arms and ammunition. According to the peace accord, criminal cases against the members of NDFB for non-heinous crimes would be withdrawn by the Assam government.
NDFB's Ranjan Daimary faction had carried out the serial bomb blasts across Assam on October 30, 2008, claiming the lives of 88 persons and injuring more than 500 people. NDFB(S), another dreaded faction, had killed 43 people, mostly from the minority community, in Baksa and Kokrajhar districts in May 2014. Further attacks by NDFB(S) killed at least 81 people, including 76 tribals, in Sonitpur, Kokrajhar, Baksa and Chirang districts in December 2014.
During the signing of the agreement, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said over 4,000 lives were lost in the region due to the Bodo insurgency, which continued for several decades.
