The states of Northeast India especially Assam, Manipur and Nagaland have over the years witnessed an increased spate of violence and terror owing to their various homegrown insurgencies. Outfits such as the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) have been in the limelight for their operations in these states. Many other smaller outfits such as the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD), Adivasi National Liberation Army (ANLA), and Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF) have been active in many districts of Assam and in the border areas of Nagaland, and are under the direct patronage of one or the other of the bigger insurgent organizations.

On the one hand, there is a continuous cycle of violence against the state machinery, comprising of the state government, central paramilitary forces and local police structure. On the other hand, there is violence between factions within organizations, and which has seen an upward trend in recent times. With most insurgent organizations in the region now split along ideological and pro-ceasefire and anti-ceasefire lines, the work of the security forces and government negotiators has become very difficult.

There is a clear split between the ULFA which is divided between the Bangladesh-based ULFA and the Assam-based ULFA. The former has operations in Lower Assam and was mainly responsible for the series of blasts in public places recently that killed a lot of innocent civilians while the latter group has managed to keep a semblance of legitimacy in its traditional bastion of Upper Assam, and claims to stick to its original ideology of anti-state operations and not against its own people. There have been instances of factional fights amidst refusal by the Upper Assam ULFA to toe the diktats of the Bangladesh-based ULFA, which is viewed as completely selling out to Bangladeshi security agencies and fundamentalist organizations.

Meanwhile, in other parts of Assam, there have been factional fights between the Bodo outfits which have led to much violence in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Council (BTAC) areas in the past few months. The feud between the ex- Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) and the NDFB, and the political divide within the current Hagrama Mohilary-led Bodoland People's Progressive Front (BPPF) and the rival faction led by Rabiram Narzary, has affected the relative peace the region had seen after the BTAC was formed. Similarly, the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the DHD, known as Black Widow, has continued violence and carries out attacks on the ceasefire faction of the DHD, as well as on the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council members. The Assam government seems to hold that once autonomy is given to any area within the state, it has little responsibility to maintain law and order, as has been witnessed in the NC Hills and BTAC areas. Fratricidal killings and kidnappings have become the order of the day and nothing has been done by the Assam government to contain the situation.

Elsewhere, the emergence of the NSCN (Unification), and the very fact that the central government has no ceasefire on paper with this new outfit, has spoiled the tentative peace in Nagaland and Manipur. The divide in Nagaland came about when the Sema tribesmen decided to align with the Khaplang faction and voiced their protest against the Tangkhul domination over NSCN (I-M). A series of violent encounters which has led to over seventy deaths in the past three months in Nagaland has been a direct result of this split in NSCN (I-M), who have used the ceasefire to their own benefit by attacking NSCN (U), and blaming them for the violence. Carrying of arms under jackets and shawls everywhere during ceasefire, which has been done by NSCN (I-M), defeats the very rationale of having a ceasefire, as it can intimidate and incite violence anytime, as has been proven to be the case.

The central government needs to rethink its ceasefire policies in Nagaland at the earliest. This factional feud has the potential to escalate into full-blown violence that will engulf both Nagaland and Manipur, and derail the decade-long peace talks. The state government, tribal hohos, gaonburas and dubashis have all called for a return of the insurgents of the NSCN (I-M) to designated camps, keeping them away from civilian colonies, and for unification to ensure a speedy resolution of the Naga conflict. The NSCN (I-M) would however, use this situation to eliminate its rivals and suppress this new sentiment among people in Nagaland who are frustrated with this long drawn out peace process making little progress. The civil society movements' and state government's efforts at peace and unification have been termed as farcical by the NSCN (I-M), and the outfit has blamed the central government and its agencies of attempting to undermine its authority in Nagaland.

Factional clashes between insurgent groups in Northeast India are growing intractable with time, and this is leading to ever greater violence that affects not just the peace but also development and economic growth in the entire region.