Insurgency in Northeast India
The Insurgency in Northeast India involves multiple separatist militant groups operating in some of India's northeastern states, which are connected to the rest of India by the Siliguri Corridor, a strip of land as narrow as 14.29 miles (23.00 km) wide.
Insurgency in Northeast India | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Map of India with northeastern states highlighted red | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Supported by :
|
Separatist groups:
Other: Supported by:
| ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Former:
|
G Bidai Arabinda Rajkhowa (POW) Paresh Baruah Anup Chetia (POW) Kalalung Kamei Arambam Samerendra † Angami Zapu Phizo † Laldenga † I. K. Songbijit Biswamohan Debbarma (POW) Durga Minz Xabrias Khakha Prem Brahma Milton Burman (POW) Tom Adhikary (POW) Men Sing Takbi † Pradip Terang Ranjit Debbarma (POW) | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
200,000 in Nagaland (1995) 70,000 (1992) 8,634 (2008) Unknown |
1,500 (2010) ACF: 350 (2005) Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Since 1992: 2,762 killed 13–36 killed, 43–68 injured |
Since 1992: 8,554 killed in India 485–650 killed or captured in Bhutan | ||||||
40,000 civilians killed overall |
Northeastern India consists of seven states (also known as the Seven Sister States): Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland. Tensions existed between insurgents in these states and the central government as well as amongst their native indigenous people and migrants from other parts of India and illegal immigrants.
In recent years, insurgency in the region has seen rapid decline, with a 70% reduction in insurgency incidents and an 80% drop in civilian deaths in 2019 compared to 2013.
The 2014 Indian general election had an 80% voter turnout in all northeastern states, the highest among all states of India according to Indian government. Indian authorities claim that this shows the faith of the northeastern people in Indian democracy. Indian Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan then Eastern Army Commander had stated that as of 2020, the area of violence in the entire North-East has shrunk primarily to an area which is the tri-junction between Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and north Nagaland.