GUWAHATI: IK Songbijit, whose insurgent group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) had earned notoriety following the massacre of over 70 Adivasis in Assam two years ago, has kicked the Bodo cause and raised an outfit of Karbi combatants.
Karbi is his tribe but Songbijit was fighting for the Bodos all these years. Ever since the genocide, he remained cornered among the Bodos because of his barbaric ways.
The insurgent group People’s Democratic Council of Karbi-Longri (PDCK), which he now heads, was raised in Myanmar last week.
The police suspected that the outfit was formed with Karbi youths drawn from the NDFB faction where Songbijit once called the shot.
“The formation of PDCK hasn’t happened in Karbi Anglong district. It was raised possibly outside India because according to Intelligence Bureau reports, he (Songbijit) was holed up somewhere in Myanmar. We have taken serious note of the development but as of now they don’t have any presence in the district,” Karbi Anglong Superintendent of Police Debojit Deuri told Express.
Some Karbi youths had got recruited in the NDFB faction when Songbijit was heading it and the police suspected that these youths helped him form the new outfit.
Karbi Anglong, the homeland of the Karbis in central Assam, has seen the formation of many insurgent groups over the past three decades. All of these, except one, are lying low following their signing of ceasefire agreements with the government.
Deuri said Songbijit was trying to capitalize on the vacuum created by the ceasefire agreements.
“He is definitely trying to cash in on the vacuum. In the past, all Karbi insurgent outfits were raised with the objective of securing statehood for the Karbis. This is for the first time that Songbijit’s group is talking about sovereignty. We have no doubt that it is backed by the NSCN-K (SS Khaplang faction of Naga insurgent group National Socialist Council of Nagaland),” the SP added.