When militants pretend to talk of human rights, it is usually a ploy. The United Liberation Front of Asom, which thrived on killings and abductions, is an unlikely champion of any rights whatsoever. There is a cruel irony, therefore, in its demand that the bodies of its members fallen in the Royal Bhutan Army’s offensive be handed over to their families as a mark of respect to their “human rights”. It is impossible to miss the cynicism and the duplicity behind the ULFA’s appeal for human rights. For more than two decades the militant group denied all rights, including the one to live, to all whom it targeted as adversaries. Not just policemen or Indian paramilitary forces, but even militants who surrendered to the authorities and returned to their families and a peaceful life were ruthlessly hunted down and killed by the ULFA. Its violent and coercive methods meant a denial of human rights to the ordinary Assamese who dared to oppose it — one has only to remember the brutal killing of Sanjay Ghose, the fearless activist of a non-governmental organization.

As the Bhutanese army’s action puts the ULFA in disarray, it is important for the Assamese to take a measure of the ravages it has wrought on their lives. Because of it Assam became a land of fear and despair. Although investors shied away from the state and outsiders felt insecure, it is the Assamese themselves who bore the brunt of this reign of terror. The ULFA’s curse blighted the ordinary people’s lives, particularly by holding the state’s economic prospects to ransom. The Bhutanese campaign should thus be seen as a beacon of peace and hope in Assam. But the Assamese cannot afford to squander the opportunity that has now come their way. It is crucial that Assam’s people and political parties show as decisive a will to defeat the ULFA as Bhutan’s small army has displayed to dismantle their camps and chase them away from its territory. For far too long, the ULFA’s shadow darkened Assam’s politics and sometimes distorted its democratic functioning. There have been times when political groups have sought to win elections or settle scores with their opponents with covert help from the militants. Assam has paid a heavy price for such suicidal rendezvous with militancy. Bhutan has destroyed their camps; it is now the Assamese people’s turn to destroy the militants’ myths.