There are various separatist movements in India, mainly in the north-east of the country. There are 3 main secessionist movements namely Khalistan, Assam and Kashmir. Minor incidents have also occurred in Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and, Nagaland. The more important issue with these stats however is territorial dispute with neighboring states, rather than independence from the India. The most high profile separatist actions have been in Kashmir.
India introduced AFSPA in 1958 to put down separatist movements in certain parts of the country. The law was first enforced in Manipur and later enforced in other insurgency-ridden north-eastern states. It was extended to most parts of Indian-administered Kashmir soon after the outbreak of armed insurgency in 1989. The law gives soldiers immunity against prosecution unless the Indian government gives prior sanction for such prosecution. The government maintains that the AFSPA is necessary to restore normalcy in regions like Kashmir and Manipur.[1]
Hundreds of people are locked up on spurious grounds under the Public Safety Act in Jammu and Kashmir every year. This report exposes a catalogue of human rights violations associated with the use of administrative detention under the Public Safety Act. It highlights how these run counter to India's obligations under international human rights law. If India is serious about meeting these obligations, then it must ensure that the Public Safety Act is repealed and that detainees are released immediately or tried in a court of law. [2]
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The insurgency in Kashmir, the most notable one, has existed in various forms. Thousands of lives have been lost since 1989 due to the intensification of both the insurgency and the fight against it.
A widespread armed insurgency started in Kashmir with the disputed 1987 election with some elements from the State's assembly forming militant wings which acted as a catalyst for the emergence of armed insurgency in the region.[3][4]
The Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan has been accused by India of supporting and training mujahideen.[5][6] to fight in Jammu and Kashmir.[7][8] According to official figures released in Jammu and Kashmir assembly, there were 3,400 disappearance cases and the conflict has left more than 47,000 people dead as of July 2009. However, the number of insurgency-related deaths in the state have fallen sharply since the start of a slow-moving peace process between India and Pakistan.[9]
Geographically and culturally, the region now called north-east India is situated between the two traditions of Indic Asia and Mongoloid Asia and is regarded as part of Southeast Asia. This geographical-cultural condition of "in-betweenness" is an important factor in the area’s crisis of identity. The leaders of the present-day "underground outfits" continue to struggle for independence, as the political integration of the northeast to India was brought about without the approval of its people. The people of northeast India, who are culturally Mongoloid, refuse to accept the caste-ridden social system advocated by ‘Indian’ culture. Similar struggles for independence are also going on in other northeastern subdivisions or sister regions, such as Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland.
Since the mid-20th century, people from present-day Bangladesh (then part of Pakistan) have been migrating to Assam. In 1961, the Government of Assam passed a legislation making use of Assamese language compulsory; It had to be withdrawn later under pressure from Bengali speaking people in Cachar. In the 1980s the Brahmaputra valley saw a six-year Assam agitation [10] triggered by the discovery of a sudden rise in registered voters on electoral rolls.
The post 1970s experienced the growth of armed separatist groups like the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) [10] and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). Regional autonomy has been ensured for Bodos in Bodoland Territorial Council Areas (BTCA) and for the Karbis in Karbi Anglong after agitation of the communities due to sluggish rate of development and aspirations for self-government. As the situation in Assam has turned very serious as communal clashes continue in two central districts of the state, namely Udalguri and Darrang.
The United Liberation Front of Asom is a separatist group from Assam,[11] among many other such groups in North-East India. It seeks to establish a sovereign Assam via an armed struggle in the Assam Conflict. The Government of India had banned the organization in 1990 and classifies it as a terrorist group, while the US State Department lists it under "Other groups of concern".[12]
ULFA claims to have been founded at the site of Rang Ghar on April 7, 1979,[11] a historic structure from the Ahom kingdom. Military operations against it by the Indian Army that began in 1990 continues till present. In the past two decades some 10,000 people have died in the clash between the rebels and the government.[13]
The major leaders of the organisation are:
There have been reports of support lent to ULFA by Pakistan's ISI and Chinese Militay, as have the weapons recovered from the militants pointed to.
Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA) is a Separatist organization founded around 1996 in the eastern Indian state of Assam. The South Asia Terrorism Portal (satp.org) describes it as part of the All Muslim United Liberation Forum of Assam (AMULFA), and that Muslim United Liberation Front of Assam (MULFA) is a sister organization under the AMULFA umbrella.[14] It is alleged that MULTA is supported by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
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 Bodo language speaking ethnic group. Currently the hypothetical map of Bodoland includes the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) administered by the non-autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). The map of Bodoland overlaps with the districts of Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri in the state of Assam. The Bodo people seek an independent state.[15]
Both the National Liberation Front of Tripura and the All Tripura Tiger Force, which claim to represent the Tripuri people, an economically disadvantaged community.[16]
Khalistan Khālistān (Punjabi: ਖ਼ਾਲਿਸਤਾਨ) is on actually proposed Sikh homeland. The Khalistan movement is a movement in Indian Punjab to create "The Land of the Pure" as an independent Sikh state in Punjabi-speaking areas, viz. Indian Punjab and Chandigarh.[17]
This movement started in the early 1980s and greatly escalated in 1984 following Operation Blue Star. It has however pretty much died down in India and separatists operate from other counrties like Canada, the U.K. and Pakistan. The Kanishka Air India flight bombing was carried out by Sikh Separatists based in Canada.