Govt's peace initiative lead to more violence in NE

New Delhi, May 2: The sudden spurt in violence in the North-Eastern Region (NER), more particularly in Asom, is being attributed to the failure of peace initiative by the Centre with the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).

According to Home Ministry sources, the number of violent incidents had doubled in the first quarter of 2007 against the corresponding period of last year. Civilian casualties registered an over three-fold increase, the sources said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) report said till March 31, this year, there have been 156 incidents in Asom compared to 85 corresponding to the same period last year. This indicates that the number of incidents had nearly doubled, the report said.

Similarly, during the first three months in this calendar year, 99 civilians were killed. This was more than three times compared to the figure of 31 during the corresponding period of 2006.

The report said ULFA, with which the Government had observed over a month-long ceasefire last year, accounted for over 50 per cent of the violent incidents in 2006.

The ULFA militants unleased largescale violence during January-February 2007. The militants killed 70 migrant Bihari workers in just two weeks of January alone, the sources added.

UNI