Significance of the Awami League Government in ULFA's peace talk with the Government of India

Anup Sinha *

The Centre, Assam government, and United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) signed a tripartite peace accord, excluding ULFA (Independent). The accord discards ULFA’s original objective. It references the pending NRC matter. The accord includes a financial package and infrastructure development. ULFA will disband, and talks are planned with the anti-talks faction.

The leaders ULFA stated that the actions taken by the Awami League government in Bangladesh, which involved suppressing Indian insurgent groups, left them with little alternative but to engage in peace negotiations with the government in 2011.

India has consistently found Bangladesh to be a reliable ally in times of need. The bilateral security collaboration had always been mutual. Bangladesh has demonstrated its dedication to addressing the security concerns of India.

The movement gained momentum, particularly with the takeover of office by Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. In addition, the Prime Minister deserves credit for addressing India’s security concerns and establishing a reciprocal security cooperation.

How it happened

“Following Sheikh Hasina’s victory in the 2008 elections, the political landscape in Bangladesh underwent a sudden transformation as her party, the Awami League, assumed power.” In recognition of India’s assistance during the Liberation War in 1971, the Awami League government has made the decision to dismantle all camps belonging to Indian rebel factions.

“After ULFA signed a pact with the government, ending their 44-year-long armed movement and peace talks that started in 2011, ULFA’s ‘foreign secretary’ Sashadhar Chowdhury mentioned that red-corner notices were issued against all of us and life-size photographs were displayed in the airports.”

Anup Chetia said that, they came to the realization that Bangladesh was no longer a secure refuge for them. That time, they had nowhere to go.They were thrown out from Bhutan in 2003. They became directionless as most of our leaders were captured and jailed one-by-one. Their military head Paresh Baruah was in another country. In that situation, they had no option but to react to the initiative for talks taken by the civil society organisations in Assam.

The northeast region of India is one of the most susceptible places in terms of security. Security cooperation has been a prominent component of Bangladesh–India bilateral ties. India sees Bangladesh as the closest partner in guaranteeing security in its geographically disadvantaged northeast states.

The security challenges including terrorism, insurgency, and separatist activities in the northeast region have been controlled and managed, partially due of the great aid supplied by Bangladesh. Bangladesh has taken great progress in dealing with major northeastern insurgent organizations and maintained tight coordination with India in terms of intelligence sharing and security problems.

In addition, Bangladesh has also entered an Extradition Treaty with India in January 2013 to address the security concerns of each other and establishing mutual confidence. With the deal, India obtained a mechanism to clamp down on insurgency in the northeastern portion of the country.

Not only that, the militants of northeastern states failed to seek any shelter in Bangladesh due of the land border accord with Bangladesh reached in 2015. This hindered them from carrying out their operations supporting separatist groups and insurgencies in the North East.

The incumbent Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar conveyed his thanks towards Bangladesh by claiming that, the terrorist activities in the country’s northeast region have diminished due of India’s crucial land boundary treaty with Bangladesh.

Terrorism is one of the greatest security challenges in both Bangladesh and India. As said previously, Bangladesh has a key role in battling terrorism in northeastern states as they had been facing longstanding insurgency movements.

In the past, the militants used to use the land of Bangladesh as their base. But this crisis was strong-handedly rectified after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina entered into office. Her admirable acts against the terrorists have contributed to setting up a new era of collaboration between the two countries.

For example, Bangladesh handed back prominent Ulfa leader Anup Chetia, to India 18 years after his detention in Dhaka for trespassing. This individual had been in prison since his arrest in Mohammadpur on December 21, 1997.

It was a big boost to bilateral security cooperation between India and Bangladesh. Not only that, Bangladesh deported back some other prominent Ulfa leaders, including Arabinda Rajkhowa, in 2009 via the border with the northeastern Indian state of Assam. Both extraditions expedited the process of peace talks between the separatists and New Delhi.

Ways Forward

The northeastern states are almost disconnected from the Indian mainland. The terrorists and separatists use the advantage of the “Chicken’s Neck” and carried out their insurgent actions in these nations. Bangladesh, in turn, has been always at India’s side in combating the issue while some viewpoints of India and Bangladesh are radically different.

Therefore, the various views of India and Bangladesh to grasp security challenges need to be synced for mutual benefit. Only active security engagement between the two countries would aid in converting relations from the present state of mutual mistrust to one of mutual benefit and mutual confidence.

Both of the countries should evaluate the bilateral issues from a pragmatic standpoint to establish an agreement on difficult bilateral issues as well as to further strengthen this relationship to a new horizon of development. A long-standing stable relationship between the two countries is important to maintain peace in the northeastern states of India.