1,000 insurgents of 8 tribal groups lay down arms in Assam

Altogether 1182 cadres of eight Adivasi insurgents outfits, which had signed a peace agreement with the central and Assam governments, on Thursday formally deposited their arms to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati.

The representatives of outfits, including three breakaway factions, deposited their arms to the chief minister at a ceremony organised by the home department Guwahati.

The cadres laid down 304 arms and 1460 rounds of ammunition.

These included seven AK-series rifles, twenty .303 rifles, four SLRs, four carbines, one INSAS rifle, one LMG, 124 pistols, 30 semi-automatic rifles, 20 grenades, 10 improvised explosive devices, two kg of RDX and 2.5 kg of TNT.

The home department had displayed 200 of these arms at the venue of the surrender ceremony.

The chief minister in his address welcomed the members of various insurgent outfits, saying they have shunned the path of violence and joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mission of peace and progress in the North East, ending insurgency in the tribal areas of the state.

'We have taken various measures for the rehabilitation of the cadres and the government will continue to work for the development of the tribal community," he said.

All the 1,182 cadres who have laid down arms will be given Rs four lakh as fixed deposit and for the next three years, they will be paid Rs 6,000 each per month, Sarma said.

Besides, both the central and state government will provide Rs 500 crore each for the overall development of the Adivasi community as per the peace agreement with the insurgents.

The outfits are All Adivasi National Liberation Army, AANLA (FG), Birsa Commando Force, BCF (BT), Santhal Tiger Force, Adivasi Cobra Militant of Assam, ACMA (FC) and Adivasi People's Army.

The arms were deposited by 453 cadres of ACMA, 340 of BCF, 140 OF STF, 125 of AANLA and 124 cadres of APA.

The eight Adivasi outfits had surrendered on January 24, 2012, and later signed the suspension of operations on October 4, 2016.

Since the signing of the SoO, several rounds of talks were held between the members of the outfits and both governments and subsequently on September 15, 2022, the tripartite Adivasi Peace Accord was signed.

According to Clause 3 of the Accord, the Assam government had constituted a 16-member Adivasi Welfare and Development Council with Ashim Hasda as chairman, Subhas Tirkey as vice chairman, Durga Hasda as chief executive member and Peter Dang as deputy CEM.

The oath-taking ceremony of the members of the council was also held on Thursday at the same function in the presence of the chief minister.

The Adivasi Accord had envisaged the establishment of the Council 'to reflect the aspiration of Adivasis and today with the oath-taking ceremony we have delivered the promise', the chief minister said.

Sarma urged the Council members to work with the government for the uplift of the Adivasi society.

"Our government has reserved 30 seats for the Adivasis and tea tribes in medical colleges and soon there will be three per cent reservation for them in all government jobs," he said.