Ingti Kathar Songbijit is a militant leader who once led the secessionist faction of

National Democratic Front of Boroland The National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) was an armed separatist outfit which sought to obtain a sovereign Boroland for the Bodo people. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by the Government of India. NDFB traces its origin ...

(NDFB) in

North-East India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political administrative division of the country. It comprises eight states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, M ...

. Although he served as the leader of an organization that claims to represent

Bodo people The Boro (बर'/बड़ो ), also called Bodo, are a Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman speaking ethnolinguistic group native to the state of Assam in India. They are a part of the greater Bodo-Kachari people, Bodo-Kachari family of e ...

, Songbijit is not a Bodo himself. He was born in a Karbi family. He hails from the Chelaikhati village, which is located in the

Biswanath Chariali Biswanath (Pron: ˌbɪswəˈnɑːθ ˈtʃɑːrɪˌælɪ) is a small city and a municipal board in Biswanath district in the state of Assam, India. This city is the district headquarters of Biswanath district, which was created on 15 August 2015. ...

sub-division of

Sonitpur district Sonitpur district ron: ˌsə(ʊ)nɪtˈpʊə or ˌʃə(ʊ)nɪtˈpʊəis an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters is located at Tezpur. Etymology The name of the district is derived from a story found ...

, Assam. Kathar is a sub-clan (''kurjon'') of the Ingti clan, which enjoys a high status in the Karbi society; the traditional chief priests come from the Kathar ''kurjon''. As a young man, Songbijit joined National Democratic Front of Boroland, a militant group seeking secession from India, to establish a sovereign

Boroland The Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) is an autonomous division in Assam, India, and a proposed state in Northeast India. It is made up of five districts on the north bank of the Brahmaputra River below the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal P ...

. After a section of NDFB gave up the secessionist demand and agreed to stage talks with the government, NDFB split into two factions. Songbijit remained with the anti-talks faction NDFB(ATF), which was led by NDFB's founder Ranjan Daimary. In 2009, Songbijit was promoted to the post of "army commander" in NDFB(ATF). In early 2010s, after Ranjan Daimary was arrested, a section of his group, now called NDFB(R), agreed to engage in talks with the government. The faction opposed to the talks elected Songbijit as the "Interim President" of NDFB on 13–14 November 2012. The new faction led by Songbijit is termed as NDFB(S) by the media and the government (Songbijit himself refers to his group as simply NDFB). In 2014, NDFB(S) was believed to have around 270 cadres, and was led by a 9-member "national council". Its cadres were scattered across several camps located in

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Sagaing Region Sagaing Region (, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an administrative divisions of Myanmar, administrative region of Myanmar, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and longitude 94° 97' east. It is border ...

. In January 2014, the

Assam Police The Assam Police is the law enforcement agency for the state of Assam in India. The regular police force was initiated in Assam by the British after the Treaty of Yandaboo to maintain the law and order. It functions under the Department of Hom ...

included him in the list of 15 most wanted criminals, and declared a cash reward of 1 million for information leading to his arrest. NDFB(S) was accused by the government of carrying out the

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May in the Southern Hemisphere is the ...

and

December December is the twelfth and final month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. December's name derives from the Latin word ''decem'' (meaning ten) because it was originally the tenth month of the year in t ...

2014 attacks against Muslim migrants and

Adivasi The Adivasi (also transliterated as Adibasi) are heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent. The term is a recent invention from the 20th century and is now widely used as a self-designation by groups classified as Scheduled Tr ...

Tea tribes respectively, resulting in deaths of over a hundred civilians. Songbijit's faction was known to be in touch with other secessionist militant groups, including

ULFA The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) is an armed separatist insurgent organisation, that operates in the Indian state of Assam. It seeks to establish an independent sovereign nation state of Assam for the indigenous Assamese people thro ...

and

KLO Klo or KLO may refer to: * Kalibo International Airport (IATA: KLO), Philippines * Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, India * Karabakh Liberation Organization (), Azerbaijan * Korea Liaison Office, an American intelligence unit in the Korean War * ...

. While ULFA seeks to establish a united sovereign Assam, KLO demands a sovereign

Kamtapur Kamtapur is an autonomous area in the Assam state of India administered by the Kamatapur Autonomous Council. History Kamatapur emerged as a sovereign state in the middle of the 13th century, and it continued through fluctuating levels of prosp ...

for

Koch people The Koch are a small trans-border ethnic group of Assam and Meghalaya in India and northern Bangladesh. The group consists of nine matrilineal and strictly exogamous clans, with some of them preserving a hitherto sparsely documented Boro-Gar ...

. Both these proposed states have territories overlapping with the proposed sovereign

Bodoland The Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) is an Autonomous administrative divisions of India, autonomous division in Assam, India, and a Proposed states and union territories of India#Assam, proposed state in Northeast India. It is made up of five ...

. Songbijit justified his alliances with these groups claiming that Koch and Bodo people have common ethnic roots, and NDFB has more similarities than differences with ULFA. According to him, the civilians killed in NDFB attacks were either

collateral damage "Collateral damage" is a term for any incidental and undesired death, injury or other damage inflicted, especially on civilians, as the result of an activity. Originally coined to describe military operations, it is now also used in non-milit ...

, or those involved in anti-NDFB activities. In a 2013 interview, Songbijit stated that he would agree to talks, if the government agrees to hold a referendum on Bodoland independence. According to him, corruption and diversity in religion, caste and community will ultimately lead to

balkanization Balkanization or Balkanisation is the process involving the fragmentation of an area, country, or region into multiple smaller and hostile units. It is usually caused by differences in ethnicity, culture, religion, and geopolitical interests. ...

of India "into 600 pieces". In 2015, Songbijit was deposed as the NDFB President, following differences between him and other top leaders.

References

{{Authority control Indian guerrillas People from Sonitpur district