Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday said that the ultra-leftist extremist organisations operating in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were aiding the Adivasi militants of Assam. “I have no doubts that the Maoists from other States are trying to indoctrinate the Adivasi youths of Assam and provoking them to take up weapons,” said Gogoi. The Chief Minister added that the militant organisation All Assam Adivasi National Liberation Army (AAANLA) was being backed by the Naxalites of other States.

The AAANLA – hitherto a rag-tag militia of the Adivasis – has stepped up its offensives over the past few weeks, its biggest strike being the December 13 explosion on the Dibrugarh-Guwahati-Delhi Rajdhani Express that killed five passengers onboard.

The Chief Minister admitted that the AAANLA was a new addition to the security-concerns of the State, which had already been plagued by militancy and myriad conflicts.

“We have drawn the Union Government’s attention to the fact that this outfit was being backed by the Maoist elements of other States and we need cooperation from other States as well as the Centre to contain it,” said Mr Gogoi.

The AAANLA has resorted to a series of offensive across the State in the aftermath of a violent clash between some agitating Adivasis and local residents of Guwahati on November 24 last. Hundreds of Adivasis that day took to the streets in Guwahati to press for their long-pending demand for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

The local traders and residents retaliated and an Adivasi protester was killed and over 200 others were injured in the ensuing clash. Some local youths even stripped an Adivasi woman and hounded her on the street in full public view.

There are over 70 lakh Adivasis in Assam at present, with most of them being either the former or present workers of tea-plantations or their descendants. They trace their roots to Munda, Oraon, Santhal and other communities of Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. They are the descendants of the indentured labourers whom the British planters brought to the tea plantations of Assam in late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Adivasi leaders point out that since the their communities are recognised as STs in the places of their origin, they should have the same status in Assam too.