Three days and a death toll of at least 30 and counting in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district. The brutal attacks on migrant Bihari workers by a fragmented and little-known militant group indicate one trend above all: ULFA’s commander-in-chief, Paresh Barua, has mastered the business of political violence. The recent attacks are the most dangerous example of outsourcing terror in the Northeast. They also show Barua’s understanding of the region’s complicated ethnic equations.

On paper, the continuing strikes were carried out by the Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF), which comprises about 70 men who split from the United Peoples’ Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) in 2004 after it began talks with the government. The KLNLF, apart from its hardline no-negotiations stand, is known for little else among the intelligence community except extortion notices in Assam’s central Karbi Anglong Hills. Till recently, guerilla-style raids of 20 to 30 men with AK-56s, as intelligence sources confirm, were not their statement or line of work. It was, in fact, that of their backers.

Since the ULFA’s first mass attack on Biharis in late 2003, the militant group has launched three major waves against migrant workers in the Brahmaputra Valley in the name of protecting regional economic interests. Attacks earlier this year saw more than 55 migrants killed. However, recent developments, say analysts, have made it difficult for Barua’s men to justify their actions, particularly after the peace process broke down and the ULFA-nominated Peoples’ Consultative Group (PCG) failed to bring the group to the table. The ULFA now faces a need to regain credibility among the Assamese, but more importantly among the militant groups of the region, as a viable fighting group.

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