National Democratic Front of Bodoland

The National Democratic Front of Bodoland, also known as NDFB or the Bodo Security Force, is a terrorist outfit which seeks to obtain a sovereign Bodoland

Bodoland

Bodoland is an area located in the north bank of Brahmaputra river in the state of Assam in north east region of India, by the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh; inhabited predominantly by the Bodo people. Currently the map of Bodoland includes the Bodoland Territorial Areas District ...

for the Bodo people

Bodo people

The Bodos are an ethnic and linguistic community, early settlers of Assam in the North-East of India. According to the 1991 census, there were 1.2 million Bodos in Assam which makes for 5.3% of the total population in the state. Bodos belong to a larger ethnic group called the Bodo-Kachari. The...

in Assam

Assam

Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...

, India. The founder of the organization, Ransaigra Nabla Daimary, alias Ranjan Daimary has been arrested and detained by Indian authorities. Though NDF advocates sovereignty for Bodos, however, majority of its members are Christians, who themselves do not represent majority indigenous Bodos. Bodos use Devanagari script as medium of writing, but NDFB promotes Roman Script to suite their agenda.

Beginning

The organization came into being on October 3, 1986, in Odla Khasibari village close to Udalguri

Udalguri

Odalguri , , is a town and a town area committee and the headquarters of Udalguri district in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam. Earlier, Udalgiri was a sub-divisional headquarters in Darrang District...

. It was originally called Boro Security Force (BSF) and changed its name to the present one on November 25, 1994. Majority of the cadres were Christians. This organization is often confused with the erstwhile Bodo Liberation Tigers Force

Bodo Liberation Tigers Force

Bodo Liberation Tigers Force , also called Bodo Liberation Tigers , was an armed group operating in the Bodo dominated regions of Assam which demanded a separate state for the Bodos to be carved out of Assam...

, which has since joined the political mainstream. The flag of the NDFB is green with a yellow star on red background on the corner.

Objective

This organisation fights to get a sovereign Bodoland

Bodoland

north of the Brahmaputra River

Brahmaputra River

The Brahmaputra , also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, is a trans-boundary river and one of the major rivers of Asia. It is the only Indian river that is attributed the masculine gender and thus referred to as a in Indo-Aryan languages and languages with Indo-Aryan influence...

. It was very active during the 1990s. It consists of around 1,000 fighters. The NDFB is allied with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (IM) and illegally occupies terrorist training camps in the South of Bhutan

Bhutan

Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...

. In December 2003, the government of Bhutan

Bhutan

and the Indian Army launched joint operations to destroy these terrorist camps operated in Bhutanese territory by ULFA and NDFB. They also were implicated in the assassination of Bineshwar Brahma

Bineshwar Brahma

Bineshwar Brahma was the president of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha in Assam, India. He was born on 28 February 1948 in a small village of Bhatarmari near Kokrajhar. He was the son of Late Taramoni Brahma and Late Sanathi Brahma.-Family:*Fathers Name: Late Taramoni Brahma,*Mother's Name: Late Sanathi...

, a prominent educationist and litterateur in Bodoland opposed to the writing of the Bodo language

Bodo language

Bodo is a language that belongs to the branch of Barish section under Baric division of the Tibeto-Burman languages and spoken by the Bodo people of north-eastern India and Nepal...

in Roman script.

The main goals include:

Separate itself from the expansionism and occupation of India
Free Bodoland from the exploitation, oppression, anddomination by colonialists
Uphold the integrity of a sovereign Bodoland
Set up a Democratic Socialist Society that promoted Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity
Change the written language to Roman
Take part indirectly or directly in the elections in the lower house of parliament

Occupation

The NDFB occupied the areas to the north and northwest of the Brahmaputra river in Assam primarily. It was also active in Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Darrang, Berpeta, Nalbari, Dhubri, Sonitpur, and the Garo hills region of Meghalaya.

Leadership

The NDFB held a general assembly meeting to elect new leaders. They elected B. Sungthagra alias Dhiren Boro as the new President, and B Sungthagra is suspected to have regained his chair as vice president. It was revealed that the "home secretary" of the NDFB is Sabin Boro.

Ceasefire

Under an agreement on May 24, 2005 with the Government of India and the NDFB has been maintaining a ceasefire

Ceasefire

A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...

since June 1, 2005. Since the cease fire the level of threat posed by the NDFB has dropped. The agreement stated that the NDFB agree to cease hostile action against security forces and civilians. In return, the security forces would not carry out operations against the group's members. The agreement also stipulated that NDFB members would disarm and live in camps protected by the military for a year, and would refrain from assisting other militant groups. The ceasefire is expected to lead to talks between the armed group and state agencies and ultimately to a complete halt in armed conflicts.

However, in May 2006, five members of the security forces were abducted and then killed by suspected NDFB members in Assam's Udalguri district

Udalguri

. The group also continued to clash with cadres of the ex-BLTF (Bodo Liberation Tiger Force). On June 5, 2006, two former BLTF cadres were killed by NDFB militants in the Karbi Anglong district

Karbi Anglong District

Karbi Anglong district is the largest amongst the 27 administrative districts of Assam state in north-eastern India. The district is bounded by Golaghat district on the east, Meghalaya state and Marigaon district on the west, Nagaon and Golaghat districts on the north and Dima Hasao district and...

, and one former member of the disbanded group was lynched by suspected NDFB militants in Golaghat district

Golaghat District

Golaghat district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. It attained district status in 1987. The district headquarters are located at Golaghat. The district occupies an area of 3502 km² and lies 100 m above sea level. As of 2001, Golaghat district has a population of...

on June 3, 2007.

Attacks

In November 2010, NDFB announced that they would kill "at least 20 Indians" to avenge the death of their commander, Mohan Basumatary in October 2010. On 8 November 2010, 19 people were killed in attacks by separatist rebels on markets and a bus in Assam. The Assam Police attributed the attack to NDFB. 14 of the victims were Hindi-speaking government employees hailing from the Bihar state.

On 14th march 2011 militants of the Ranjan Daimary-led faction ambushed patrolling troop of BSF

Border Security Force

The Border Security Force is a border patrol agency of the Government of India. Established on December 1, 1965, it is one of the Central Armed Police Forces. Its primary role is to guard India's international borders during peacetime and also prevent transnational crime...

when on way from Bangladoba in Chirang district of Assam to Ultapani in Kokrajhar killing 8 jawans.

Beginning

Objective

Occupation

Leadership

Ceasefire

Attacks

See also