Guwahati, Dec. 16: A ban will help police crack down on the sympathisers of the Adivasi National Liberation Army (ANLA) and nip the outfit’s activities in the bud.
Home department sources said the basic objective behind the efforts to ban the organisation was to rein in the outfit’s sympathisers who were playing the role of a propeller by helping the outfit in recruiting cadre and mobilising mass support.
“If ANLA is allowed to grow, it can be a real threat, considering the socio-economic condition of the Adivasis or the tea tribes. Literacy rate among the community is low, so it will be easy for the frontal organisations of the outfit to garner public support,” said a home department official.
The police already claimed to have clinching evidence of close links between the All Adivasi Students Association of Assam and ANLA. It had recently arrested a few ANLA activists who had confessed to the police that several of the outfit’s members had come to attend the public rally convened by the student association in Beltola last month.
Police officials also claimed that unless the outfit was banned, it would not be possible for them to crack down on the sympathisers or the frontal organisations of the outfit. “Once the outfit is banned, we can arrest its sympathisers,” said inspector-general of police (special branch) Khagen Sarma.
Reiterating that the process was on to ban ANLA, Sarma said the ban would help the police arrest any member of the outfit even without any case against him.
“To arrest members of an organisation which is not banned, we need some specific cases against them. As for sympathisers, they cannot be arrested just for being supportive to an organisation which is not outlawed,” said another police official.
The government is particularly worried because some influential Adivasi organisations, including some Jharkand-based ones, are overtly whipping up public sentiment in favour of the outfit. “ANLA should be first isolated from its support base,” the official said.
The official said though ANLA cannot be banned on the ground that it wants to secede, the state government would cite its “anti-national” activities such as attacking government property, targeting railways and disrupting traffic on national highways to make its case to ban the outfit stronger. After the state government presents its case before the Centre, Delhi would form a tribunal to consider the case, home department sources said.
Assam bandh
The All Adivasi Students Association of Assam has called a 12-hour Assam bandh from 5am tomorrow to press for Scheduled Tribe status.
A central executive meeting of the All Assam Tea Tribes Students Association in Sivasagar this evening decided against participating in talks with tribal minister P.R. Kyndiah in New Delhi.
“Rather the meeting suggested a tripartite talks between the Centre, state and the six communities struggling for ST status,” ATTSA president Prahlad Gowala said tonight.
