New Delhi: As he hit out at the governance and policies of the Congress in the North-East during the debate on no-confidence motion in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled an episode from 1966 when the Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out an attack in Aizawl on the order of the then premier Indira Gandhi.
“On 5th March 1966, Congress had its Air Force attack the helpless citizens in Mizoram. Congress should answer if it was the Air Force of any other country. Were the people of Mizoram not the citizens of my country? Was their security not the responsibility of the Government of India,” PM Modi said Thursday in the Lok Sabha.
Modi was recalling the IAF airstrikes that took place just about six weeks after Indira Gandhi took over as the prime minister following Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death in Tashkent on 11 January, 1966, and a few months after the Second India-Pakistan war ended in September 1965.
On 5 March, the IAF attacked Aizawl with heavy gunfire and bombs were dropped the subsequent day as the government faced an uprising from insurgents, who had declared independence of Mizoram from India.
Although the airstrikes cleared Aizawl of the Mizo National Army (MNA) and pushed back its insurgents across the border into erstwhile East Pakistan, the decision came with a price as it complicated efforts to negotiate peace for years.
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Genesis of the insurgency
The looming Mizo insurgency was rooted in grievances against the administration of Assam state, and the demand for a separate state. At that time, Mizoram was a part of Assam and was known as Lushai Hills District.
The Assam government’s decision to impose Assamese and poor management of a famine that began raging from 1959, further fuelled public anger. Led by Pu Laldenga — who later became the Mizoram chief minister in 1986 — a mass movement against the famine had acquired secessionist overtones.
The Mizo National Front (MNF) declared independence from India in the early hours of 1 March, 1966, attacking the treasury at Aizawl and overran security outposts in the towns of Lunglei and Champhai. The Assam Rifles came under attack in Aizawl, and five personnel were killed.
Fearing this new insurgency could further destabilise a North-East already devastated by fighting in Nagaland, Union home minister Gulzarilal Nanda raised the alarm.
Laldenga’s success was derived from the safe havens the MNF had obtained in East Pakistan, with which the Lushai Hills shared a forest-covered 318 km border. In the five years to 1966, the MNF’s armed wing MNA grew to at least eight battalions.
The MNF’s military plan code-named Operation Jericho envisaged capturing army and paramilitary bases, and holding Aizawl long enough to raise the flag of an independent Mizoram for at least 48 hours. At that time, Pakistan had promised that it would take the issue to the United Nations, and grant diplomatic recognition to Mizoram.
The Indian response
Faced with the possibility of the Assam Rifles outpost in Aizawl being overrun, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the use of air power inside the country — for the first and only time. Four fighter jets — French-built Dassault Ouragan fighters (nicknamed Toofanis) and British Hunters — were deployed to target the insurgents in Aizawl. The planes used its cannon to fire at the town.
Strafing operation was also assigned to Caribou transport planes based in Silchar in the Cachar plains. The propeller plane had unguided bombs in the back and dropped randomly over Aizawl.
As the strike continued over the next few days, the MNF was forced to retreat into the jungles of Myanmar and East Pakistan. The use of air power, however, also claimed civilian lives. While markets and public buildings were burned down, at least 13 civilians were killed back then.
According to media reports, the government and the armed forces denied having used bombs in Mizoram for the longest time. Details, however, emerged only when some of the former insurgents recalled how people in Aizawl had seen planes shoot bullets and dropped bombs.
A 9 March, 1966, report by the now-defunct Kolkata-daily, The Hindustan Standard, quoted Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as saying that the fighter jets had been sent in to airdrop men and supplies, not bombs.
“There were two types of planes which flew over Aizawl — good planes and angry planes. The good planes were those which flew comparatively slowly and did not spit out fire or smoke; the angry planes were those which escaped to a distance before the sound of their coming could be heard and who spat out smoke and fire,” a human rights committee noted in its report attributing an eyewitness account.
The committee was led by George Gilbert Swell, a former Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, and Rev. James Joy Nichols Roy, a legislator.
Long insurgency & peace process
The air strikes left behind a legacy of bitterness. The conflict had dragged on long after the air strikes, developing into a full blown insurgency that caused enormous suffering to the local population. A year later, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act was brought into force.
Eventually, the MNF came to realise the insurgency was unwinnable, and reached out to begin negotiations with the Union Government. Indira authorised negotiations with the MNF, initially through the Intelligence Bureau.
A series of discussions were held with Laldenga and settlement on various issues. The MNF was asked to “bring out all underground personnel with their arms, ammunitions to ensure their return to civil life, to abjure violence and help in the process of restoration of normalcy”.
In return, the government promised that it will “initiate measures to confer Statehood on the Union Territory of Mizoram”.
Later, it was agreed that Mizoram shall consist of the territory specified in Section 6 of the North Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971. No act of Parliament in respect of religion or social practices of the Mizos, Mizo customary law or procedure, administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Mizo customary law, ownership and transfer of land, shall apply to the state of Mizoram unless the Legislative Assembly of Mizoram by a resolution so decides, it was said.
The Mizoram Peace Accord of 1986 brought an end to the two-decade old Mizoram insurgency. Mizoram became the 23rd state of India in 1987. Many one-time insurgents were accommodated in the Border Security Force, and the MNF itself became a mainstream political party, which currently holds power in the state.
Today, Mizoram is one of the few states of the North-East to have enjoyed a long period of peace. Although the brutal counter-insurgency left behind a legacy of ill-will, it is possible that the MNF would not have come to the table without facing overwhelming military force.
(Edited by Tony Rai)