SUMMARY
NDFB's struggle for an independent state outside the Indian union has involved not only in a state-based conflict with the Government of India and the government of Assam, but have also conducted one-sided violence against civilians. The complex patchwork of ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups that make up the population of Assam creates many possible targets in NDFB's struggle for independence and ethnic dominance in the lands designated as ‘Bodoland’. The perceived pressure placed upon the Bodos by ethnic Assamese, Bengali and other immigrants and rival tribal groups has lead to outbursts of violence against these groups at many times throughout the conflict. The struggle for political power in Bodo political bodies between different Bodo tribal outfits has also seen violence against civilians (see India: Bodoland. Many civilians also fall victim to NDFB's violence when refusing to pay ‘taxes’ or extortion money.
Large amounts of the violence against non-Bodo group civilians should be seen in relation to NDFB's demand for an independent and Bodo-dominated state, and the autonomy accords that have been signed-in the conflict. The Bodoland Autonomous Council Accord of 1993 established that the stipulated council would have control over villages that had a 50% or more Bodo population, something that in tandem with NDFB's demand for an independent Bodoland, prompted the movement to engage in violent attacks on non-Bodo civilians within the designated BAC area, and also outside it. The belief of most analysts is that NDFB (and other Bodo militants) sought to ethnically cleanse the areas that ‘make up’ Bodoland so as to achieve demographic dominance within BAC and later within the independent Bodoland state. A wide spectrum of groups was targeted in such attacks throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but primarily Moslems, Santhals (another tribal group), and Nepalese, Bhutanese, and Bengali immigrants. Other reasons for these waves of violence against civilians have been hypothesized to be a will to demonstrate NDFB's clout, to embarrass the government and to force the governments of Assam and India to make concessions at the negotiating table. The movement has not revealed the exact motives for the targeting of other communities.
NDFB also targets tribal civilians from within the Bodo ethnic community; primarily for the reason of wiping out political or civil society rivalry from Bodo political parties, or civilians deemed to be supporting rival militant outfits or the government.
The third group of targeted victims of one-sided violence is economic targets such as traders, businessmen, and tea-estate owners that are killed for failure to pay up in extortion rackets run by NDFB. Another type of economic target is woodcutters, who venture into the forests of the NDFB's designated ‘Bodoland’ to gather timber. NDFB vehemently opposes this, holding the view that such activities are uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, to the detriment of the Bodo people.
NDFB militants have made use of many different tactics when attacking civilians, making use of selective assassinations (primarily in regard to extortion and attacks on political activists), bombs and grenades against trains, marketplaces, and other crowded public spaces, as well as raids on non-Bodo villages. In attacks on non-Bodo villagers, laborers and farmers NDFB would commonly shoot civilians indiscriminately, burn houses and loot villages and settlements. Ambushes on laborers are also common, especially so in the dense jungles north of the Brahmaputra River.
NDFB first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1992, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in October that year when the group attacked several passenger trains in Assam state.
