NEW DELHI: Taking a grim view of the spate of violence unleashed by Dima Halam Daoga-Jewel (DHD-J) in Assam, particularly in the North Cachar Hills district, the Centre has cleared the decks to ban the outfit under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
After a series of review meetings on the situation of NC Hills, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar gave the green signal to the Home Ministry on Wednesday to ban the group, sources told The New Indian Express.
The outfit was responsible for disrupting the only rain-link to Tripura and Mizoram thus creating a shortage of essential commodities there. It had also stalled PM’s pet project of broad-gauging the rail-link between Badarpur and Lumding.
Infamous as the Black Widow group, the DHD-J would soon be notified by the Home Ministry and join the list of 34 organisations that have already been banned by the Centre under the UAP Act, the recent being the CPI (Maoist).
Of these, 14 outfits are from the Northeast.
The decision, apparently, has been taken to send clear signals to militant outfits that toughest sections of the law will be applied against them and their front organisations of they do not give up violence.
The ban under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act comes within weeks of the arrest of DHD-J chief Jewel Garlosa from Bangalore.
Jewel Garlosa has been arrested and Frankie (DHD-J foreign secretary) was killed but Daniel, the commander of the outfit, is still at large, Home Minister P Chidambaram had said recently, indicating that finishing off militancy in the Northeast is one of his keen concerns.
With the inclusion under the UAPA, the outfit will be under increased scrutiny of central laws and central forces. The National Investigation Agency which is already investigating a few cases involving the DHD-J will probably get more teeth through the ban.
Last month’s experience of the NIA in the NC Hills district only strengthened the centre’s belief that DHD-J should be banned.
After NIA asked for an investigation into documents at the NC Hills autonomous districts office, one night security forces found government servants burning files in the office to avoid detection of fraud and irregularities.
With the ban in place, the security forces will go full throttle to finish the Black Widow outfit, said an officer.