NSCN faction says Assam eviction drive planned to grab Naga ancestral lands

The Niki Sumi faction of the extremist National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) said the Assam government’s proposed eviction drive in Golaghat district’s Uriamghat was designed to grab the ancestral lands of the Nagas.

Uriamghat is close to Assam’s border with Nagaland.

The faction said the areas targeted were “fictitiously” marked ‘disturbed area belt’ (DAB), citing pre-1947 demarcations by the British, who had transferred these areas for administrative convenience without consulting the Nagas.

The faction said successive Assam governments made “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants” settle down in the DAB with the alleged long-term plan to evict them and grab the lands of the Nagas.

“In the name of evicting the encroachers, the Assam government has double-crossed the Nagaland government by violating the terms and is occupying Naga ancestral areas by permanently stationing Assam police in the DAB,” it said in a statement.

Assam and Nagaland have been locked in a bitter border dispute since the latter was carved out of the former in 1963, claiming more than 150 lives over the decades. Several rounds of talks have not helped resolve the dispute, but the two governments agreed to maintain the status quo more than a decade ago.

The NSCN faction accused the Assam government of violating the status quo. It also underlined Assam’s boundary disputes with other northeastern States.

Assam has partially resolved its dispute with Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

The faction appealed to the Naga people to pressure the Nagaland government into boosting security along the borders of their ancestral lands. It said more police personnel, home guards, and village guards should be recruited and deployed along the border with Assam.

The Assam government has engaged a large number of police personnel and bulldozers to clear 11,000 bighas of land at Uriamghat. However, the eviction drive is unlikely to take place on Tuesday, as initially planned.

“The eviction drive has not been finalised yet. Land survey operations are underway,” Gunadeep Das, Golaghat’s Divisional Forest Officer, said.

He said about 60% of some 15,000 settlers, mostly Muslims, have already left Uriamghat after having been served notices.

The Assam government has been carrying out a series of eviction drives across the State since June. At least 55,000 people, mostly Muslims with roots in present-day Bangladesh, have been evicted from forest land, grazing land, and government revenue land.