Assam violence between which communities

The Muslims live partly on forest land. They are now fleeing their homes, say reports. Bengali Muslims, too, were seen heading towards Dhubri district carrying their belongings ," said the report. Prevalence of arms adds a lethal ingredient to a deadly cocktail of ethnic strife and political scare mongering.

All of them held weapons ," says a survivor. The political control of BTAD by former Bodo insurgents has meant that the prevalance of arms in the region continues. Reports have said more than illegal weapons have been seized in BTAD in the run-up to elections.

Since January this year, 42 militants of of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland Songbijit faction have laid down arms, while 18 others have been killed in encounters. This easy presence of arms, coupled with the Muslims' belief that the Bodos will rely on violence to drive Muslims out of the region, adds to the fear factor.

The violence saw reports of crop damage and looting and arson too. Asia Migration and Displacement. Conflict country. Fragility risks. Conceptual Model. In-migration leads to demographic change. Demographic changes increase pressures on natural resources. Extreme weather event leads to scarcity of essential natural resources.

Loss of livelihoods leads to migration. Migration leads to conflicts between migrants and residents. Extreme Weather Event Migration pattern Change in population density, age structure, or ethnic makeup.

Demographic Change Growing, scarcity of essential natural resources. Natural Resource Scarcity Reduced availability of essential natural resources, such as land and water. Livelihood Insecurity In voluntary long and short-term movements of people within or across state boundaries. Grievances between Societal Groups Challenge to the state's legitimacy, ranging from peaceful protest to violent attempts at overthrowing the government. Anti-State Grievances. Conflict history. History of migrants in Assam Since colonial rule, seasonal Bangladeshi migrants have found employment in the tea-gardens of Assam Manuvie, Government inaction leads to violent protest The large and highly concentrated settlement of Muslim-Bangladeshi migrants in Assam, combined with government inaction to control illegal immigration, led to anti-foreigner agitation that polarised the indigenous groups against the Bangladeshi migrants.

Climate change as an exacerbating factor Climate change has also arguably exacerbated these ethnic tensions. The violence also led to the burning of more than 1, bridges in attempts to prevent election officials from reaching constituencies. Then on February 18, , fighting broke out in the district of Nellie between villagers and those seen as illegal immigrants, with estimates of 2, people—mostly Muslims—losing their lives. The massive death toll led to wide condemnation of the massacre and helped catapult the then-opposition Congress Party back into power in the state government of Assam.

The National Congress Party was founded in and was a key player in the Indian movement for independence from Great Britain. The party has also formed the central Indian government for most time periods since independence. The Muslim League, a group active during independence and Partition, merged with the National Congress Party in those years, bringing with it the Muslim voting bloc.

Two years of talks amid lingering conflict eventually led to the Assam Accord in Implementation of the accord has been contentious, and outbreaks of violence over migration have continued on a small scale since and have escalated into the violence that is taking place presently. The current situation in Assam between the Bodo tribe and immigrant minorities in the northeast started at the end of May, when a signboard was allegedly removed from a mosque by the Bodoland Territorial Council because it claimed that the mosque was illegally occupying forest land.

Tensions rose between the Bodo and Muslim communities in Kokrajhar, and on July 6 four people shot one Muslim man and injured four others. This confrontation was followed by the death of four Bodo youths, allegedly killed in a Muslim-dominated area in Kokrajhar.

Fighting spread to neighboring Dhubri district, with hundreds of homes torched, forcing more than , people to flee to relief camps in the area. The conditions in the refugee camps are dire; The New York Times reports that one camp has only 10 makeshift toilets for 4, people, while at another site more than 6, people have crammed into a high school.

Then during the week of August 13, rumors of Muslim attacks on northeastern labor immigrants in southern Indian cities began circulating via social media sites and text messages, leading to a mass exodus from Bangalore and Chennai.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai Muslim groups held a rally to protest the violence against Muslims in Assam and the attacks on the Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar that have been happening since June. Reports say at least people have taken shelter in makeshift relief camps on Sunday following last week's violence. The police said that those killed belonged to the minority Muslim community living in the affected villages.

The incident comes in the middle of India's general election, and Muslim groups believe their community has come under attack because the rebels feel that it did not support Bodo candidates.