Kidnappings on the rise

The good news is that the number of incidents of killing of extremists and civilians in the Northeastern region has decreased in 2024 in comparison to what it was in 2023. But then, the bad news is that the number of persons kidnapped in the region has increased in 2024 when compared to the figures of 2023. This has come to light in a report of the Northeast Division of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, which has been reported prominently on the front page in the Sunday edition of this newspaper. Why the number of kidnappings of persons has increased within a span of about twelve months, however, has remained unexplained. What, however, has been most significant is that the decrease in the number of incidents of killing—whether of extremists or by extremists—is a clear indication that the people of the region have increasingly rejected insurgency, extremism, and violence. There are, however, certain elements who continue to subscribe to meaningless violence, which can be easily termed as nothing but an expression of frustration of aimless and ideology-less people. It is also a fact that some foreign forces—whether belonging to the neighbourhood or to the West—have always worked towards causing destabilisation in India, and they have easily chosen the Northeast. Again, there is more than one reason behind choosing the Northeast for the purpose. The first and foremost is the fertile ground that successive regimes in Delhi in the post-independence era had helped create by way of neglecting the region on the socio-economic front. Some missionary organizations too have been held responsible from time to time for poisoning the young minds, particularly those belonging to different small ethnic groups, by taking advantage of their socio-economic background, as well as the negligence meted out by the majority and so-called mainstream groups. Rather than helping them to integrate, there have been more acts of sidelining or pushing the small communities to the brink. Placing a gun in the hands of a young man from such a community is enough to trigger trouble.