Assam insurgent groups using social media for recruitment: Govt

With insurgent groups increasingly using social media platforms for active recruitment, as many as 1,561 youngsters from Assam have joined them since 2016.

Intelligence agencies informed the Assam government that the insurgent groups, particularly the Ulfa-Independent had taken to Facebook, Messenger and Twitter to spread their ideology and attract young boys and girls to join them.

“During 2021-22, the cyber dome project started in the special branch of our police identified 990 social media posts, which are anti-national and supportive of insurgent groups. Based on such posts, at least 100 cases have been registered with various police stations across Assam. At least 85 persons have been arrested for such posts, and 581 persons have been provided counselling by our police personnel in the presence of their parents so far. Police have also deleted 400 such posts,” stated the information furnished by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in the state Assembly on Monday.

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Sarma, who is also the home minister, presented the information in reply to questions by senior Congress leader Debarata Saikia.

“They are trying to attract our youths to join them, but our police personnel also prevented many such attempts,” Sarma assured.

He said that the information provided by various agencies showed that between 2016 and 2022, youths joined Ulfa-Independent, National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), National Liberation Front of Bodoland (NLFB) and two other small insurgent groups, People's Democratic Council of Karbi Longri (PDCK) and United People's Revolutionary Front PDCK and UPRF.

The NDFB was disbanded after its leaders signed an agreement with the government in December 2020 and the NLFB was also out of hiding and laid down their weapons; talks are underway to sign an agreement with them as well.

The disclosure that more than 1,500 young men and women joined insurgency groups was significant as the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government had claimed that insurgency in the state was almost over.

Ulfa-Independent, led by rebel leader Paresh Baruah, was, however, still out of the peace talks and was reportedly trying to “recruit” the local youth. Baruah was also reportedly unwilling to join the discussion on its core demand of “sovereign Assam”.

The National Investigation Agency recently carried out searches in at least 16 locations across seven districts for evidence related to Ulfa-I’s recruitment.