What are the major challenges to internal security and peace process in the North-Eastern States ? Map the various peace accords…

The North-East’s internal security and peace processes are mutually reinforcing: unresolved identity, border and development grievances sustain armed conflict, while accords test whether political settlement can outpace violence.

Challenges Ethnic fragmentation and competing sub-nationalisms create overlapping claims. Naga-Kuki-Meitei tensions in Manipur—chiefly Meitei-Kuki-Zo today, with Naga-Kuki border frictions—show how one community’s claim can trigger another’s. Cross-border linkages with Myanmar and Bangladesh allow insurgents to regroup, trade and evade; Operation Sunrise targeted Myanmar-based camps, while the Free Movement Regime complicates border control—its suspension is a restrictive measure but may breed local resentment. Small-arms proliferation, IEDs and narco-terrorism finance sustain groups. Structural deficits persist: AFSPA’s continued presence, uneven development, and demographic anxieties over illegal migration deepen mistrust.

Accords Post-2014 government accords map a shift from war to negotiation: the 2015 Naga Framework Agreement remains unresolved despite peace talks; the 2020 Bodo Peace Accord and Bru-Reang Agreement addressed long-standing insurgencies; the 2022 Assam-Meghalaya border pact eased inter-state friction; the 2021 Karbi Anglong Agreement, the 2023 DNLA accord (Dimasa), the 2023 tripartite accord with the pro-talks ULFA faction, the 2023 UNLF peace agreement in Manipur and the 2024 NLFT–ATTF accord in Tripura extended the process. Yet several accords lack full disarmament, institutional implementation and local ownership, producing “peace accords without disarmament” and renewed violence. When accords are signed without addressing these structural deficits, armed groups retain leverage, and ethnic grievances re-emerge as local violence, undermining the peace process. Conversely, security operations alone cannot settle identity disputes; they must be paired with political inclusion and economic opportunity.

A durable settlement requires sequenced disarmament, credible implementation bodies, targeted development and employment, coordinated border management with Myanmar and Bangladesh, and community reconciliation in Manipur. Only then can accords convert ceasefire into stable peace.