The Assam assembly on Thursday passed a bill to ban polygamy, making it an offence which may lead to a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment, barring some exceptions.
'The visit of the honourable PM with the workable strategy towards conflict resolution will help greatly.' 'But visiting the state without concrete proposals may not bring the desired outcome at this stage.'
'There was no debate on which film should go to the Oscars this year.' 'Pan Nalin's Last Film Show was the unanimous choice.'
The 10-member jury was headed by filmmaker Vipul Shah. The awards were announced by jury member Dharam Gulati.
Three militants belonging to the Dimasa tribe militant group, United People's Liberation Front were killed in an encounter with a joint team of Assam Police and Assam Rifles at a forest area between Hatikhali and Manderdisha under Langting police station in Dima Hasao hill district of Assam early Thursday morning, police informed.
According to an official source, suspected Dimasa tribe militants from Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) or Black Widow outfit swooped down on Borchenam basti inhabited by the Zeme Naga tribe and fired indiscriminately before torching the entire village.
Two old couples were killed by suspected tribal militants belonging to the Black Widow outfit in two seprate incidents in remote parts of North Cachar Hill district of Assam in the wee hours on Friday.
The Dima Halam Daogah, also known as 'Black Widow', on Monday declared a unilateral ceasefire for a more than a month in Assam's North Cachar Hills and asked the railways to resume its suspended train services and construction work.
The Hamren-bound passengers reported the incident at the Milu police outpost under Kheroni police station, about 130 km from Diphu.
Five of the slain rebels were in uniform and had torches in their hands, police said.
Situation tense in ethnic violence-hit Karbi Anglong
After a lull trouble is once again brewing in Dima Hasao (erstwhile North Cachar Hills) district of Assam with the Indigenous People's Forum (IPF), a banner organisation of non-Dimasa ethnic groups, protesting the Centre's intension to sign a memorandum of understanding with militant Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) without heeding to the IPF's demand for bifurcation of the hill district into two autonomous council instead of the existing one.
The United Liberation Front of Assam led by its fugitive commander in chief Paresh Barua has called upon all the indigenous ethnic groups in Assam including Bodo, Karbi, Dimasa others to join its armed revolution to liberate Assam from the clutches of the 'colonial Indian state'.
Although a memorandum of settlement (MOS) has been finalised between the Centre and the leadership of the Dima Halam Daogah (D) militant outfit in a marathon meeting held in New Delhi on June 12, top DHD (D) leaders including its supremo Dilip Nunisa are still camping in the national capital as the Assam government is yet to receive the proposed draft MOS.
The Assam government stated that it had no abjection to granting bail to the militant leaders in the interest of materialising peace talks with the outfit which had surrendered arms over a year ago.
The almost two-year long lull in the insurgency-hit ethnic cauldron of Dima Hasao (erstwhile North Cachar) hill district of Assam has been vitiated once again even as the government is trying to restore peace in the area through dialogue with faction of militant Dima Halam Daogah.
Even as the Centre is trying to restore peace in insurgency-hit Dima Hasao district (erstwhile North Cachar Hill district) of Assam by engaging two factions of the Dima Halam Daogah in the peace process, another militant group is rearing its head in the troubled area.
The Telangana issue has rekindled Bodo tribe's demand for statehood in Assam besides adding fire to the long-standing statehood demands of different other ethnic communities including Karbi, Dimasa, Koch-Rajbongshi.
With these dastardly killings, the death toll in continuing ethnic strife triggered by Dimasa and Naga tribe militants has risen to 55 since March 19. The violent incidents of killing and arson have been occurring despite heavy presence of security forces in the hill district.
The continuing ethnic strife in North Cachar Hill district of Assam claimed one more life today Tuesday when suspected Naga miscreants shot dead one Dimasa tribesman and seriously injured his seven-year-old son near Dijaobra railway station on Tuesday.
Over 360 militants belonging to Dima Halam Daogah (DHD-Jewel) have surrendered in Assam, along with a huge cache of hi-tech foreign made weapons ahead of Tuesday's deadline for laying down the arms.
Many NEEPCO employees in the hydel power project have fled following the January 14 killing of five persons, including two security men of the plant and a minor girl, by suspected Black Widow militants at the gate of the power project.
The Dimasa tribe militant group Dima Halam Daogah has threatened to renege on the peace process with the Central government expresing its frustration over 'no progress' in the on-going peace talks with the government of India.
The successive arrests of its two top leaders within a week of each other have served a major blow to the insurgent group Black Widow. The group has been terrorising Assam's North Cachar Hill district. The Police arrested the outfit's No. 2 Joy Kishore Tharasen alias Daku Singh two days ago. The Black Widow's No. 3 leader Action Dimasa, along with seven militants, was arrested earlier this week. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered in both cases.
The age-old ethnic fabric in Assam faces a grave risk of being torn apart as many of the major tribes have either raised or renewed their demand for separate state carved out of Assam.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has appealed to both Karbis and Dimasas to maintain peace.
This was in retaliation for the torching of 58 houses and destruction of property in two Dimasa villages in a pre-dawn\nattack on Saturday, the SP said.
Altogether 78 persons were killed and 191 kidnapped by different insurgent outfits in Assam during the last two years when 20 security personnel were also killed, Minister Rockybul Hussain said on Monday in the assembly.
Days after the suspension of Indian Administrative Service officer Durga Shakti Nagal, an Indian Police Service officer was transferred two days after he reopened the history-sheet of the father of a Congress member of Legislative Assembly in Rajasthan, who had allegedly been involved in smuggling and other anti-social activities.
The Centre is likely to rush additional paramilitary forces to trouble-torn areas along the Assam-Nagaland border to maintain peace and prevent the clashes between Naga and Karbi tribals from spreading.
'Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh will have to treat these militias for what they are: Criminals armed with deadly weapons. Otherwise, nothing will distinguish the National Democratic Alliance government from the ten-year long perfidy of the UPA in Assam.'
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