In Assam, nearly 27.80 lakh people across 26 districts have been affected by the deluge. The deaths were reported from the Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Morigaon districts. The death toll due to floods and landslides this year has risen to 122.
Abducted engineer P Krishna Rao was released on Tuesday after a month's captivity by National Democratic Front of Bodoland militants in Assam's Kokrajhar district, police said. Rao, who was abducted on October 16 by militants of the NDFB anti-talks faction, was released in Karigaon area around 1200 hours, they said.
Two militants from the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland were killed in an encounter with security forces at Mahendrapur, under Gossaingaon police station in Kokrajhar district, in Assam on Saturday morning.The entire state has been put on alert following a warning by intelligence agencies that the NDFB and United Liberation Front of Asom are planning to carry out blasts across Assam.A woman ULFA cadre and explosive expert Jonali Rajbonghi was arrested.
The CBI charge sheet, filed on Monday against 19 accused, said after the planning in July, NDFB cadres were detailed by Daimary to procure three used cars for the explosions here and the details were worked out on October 19. The blasts in Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Barpeta and Bongaigaon claimed 88 lives. Two of the accused are women, the CBI said.
There was no casualty or injury in any of the explosions
A blast in New Jaipaiguri in West Bengal has killed four persons and injured seven. The police and the Intelligence Bureau are suspecting the involvement of the dreaded Inter-Services Intelligence funded, Kamtapur Liberation Organisation. The powerful bomb was planted on a cycle.
Hapless Adivasi villagers living in remote bordering areas of Kokrajhar and Sonitpur districts of Assam stood susceptible to marauding heavily armed National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit extremists who were desperate to show off their strength to counter sustained, intensified operation against them by the Assam police and the army of late.
Assam has instructed its bordering districts to keep a tight vigil and not to allow poultry products from the neighbouring West Bengal, where an outbreak of avian influenza has been reported.
A colossal musician from this part of the world, late Bhupen Hazarika describing the spring festival (Bohag Bihu) in Assam sang one of its timeless tune -- 'Bohag mathu eti ritu nohoi, nohoi Bohag ethi mah, Asomiya jatir.' Bhupen Hazarika described Bohag, as not only a season or a month but eternal the source of courage, inspiration and lifeline for the Assamese people to win over the darkness of evil.
Only 20 per cent of the nearly 50,000 licenced arms existing in Assam have been deposited so far with authorities in the run up to the three-phased Lok Sabha elections in the state.
The self-styled chairman of militant Karbi National Liberation Army and two cadres of anti-talks faction of United Liberation Front of Assam-Independent were among six terrorists arrested by the security forces in Assam during the last 24 hours.
The Assam government had received prior intelligence report of an attack by terrorists of National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit but it did not know about the target and spots, said a senior official on Saturday.
'The violence that shook Assam was a direct outcome of the state's ethnic problem... The tension that created a rift between the Bodos and the non-Bodos for years found a blood-spattered expression.' Former NSG chief Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Kokrajhar, speaks to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com about last week's carnage in Assam.
The death toll may go up given that condition of eight of the injured was stated to be serious.
The blast triggered angry protests in the area and in nearby Fancy Bazar, the commercial hub of the N-E region.
Four persons, including two boys, were allegedly kidnapped by suspected National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit's faction of insurgents in Assam's Baksa district, following which a massive search was launched and indefinite curfew imposed.
The Guwahati Siphung express derailed between Salakati and Basugaon in Assam's Kokrajhar District on Saturday, injuring at least two people.
The National Investigation Agency and Nagaland Police have arrested three suspected activists of NDFB-S, including Ajoi Basamutary on whose alleged instructions 36 people were killed in Assam's Sonitpur area last month.
'The prime minister expressed concern and assured all possible help to the state,' CMO said.
BSF Director General R S Mooshahary would handover the appointment letters to the surrendered militants at the Kokrajhar District Sports Association indoor stadium, they said.
Even as the electioneering heats up for the third and the last phase polling in Assam, main opponents the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have drawn up electioneering strategies to outsmart each other.
Singh instructed officials to try their best to restore peace in the border state as early as possible.
Haque, wanted in several cases in Assam and North Bengal was also in-charge of the outfit's foreign affairs department
The tripartite agreement was signed by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, top leadership of the four factions of the NDFB, ABSU, Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg and Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Bodo tribals influence as many as 30 seats. No wonder, national parties are keen to forge alliances with Bodo groups.
Complaints of electronic voting machine malfunctioning poured in from several booths on Tuesday during the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha polls which saw voters turning out in large numbers to cast their vote in 116 seats, including all constituencies of Gujarat and Kerala.
Assam has suffered huge losses in terms of lives, property, cropped land, dwellings and infrastructure in three waves of flood that have hit the state so far this year. Last week's deluge wreaked havoc in Kamrup and Goalpara claiming 67 lives and leaving behind a trail of destruction.
It is likely to inundate the lower Assam districts of Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Nalbari, official sources said in Guwahati on Saturday.
A militant belonging to the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland led by Sangbijit or NDFB(S) was lynched and another seriously injured by a mob at Singimari in western Assam's Goalpara district on Tuesday.
In bad news for security forces, Bodo insurgent group NDFB-S is believed to have aligned with UNLFW, an umbrella organisation of terror groups in the north-east, responsible for the recent ambush in Manipur that killed 18 soldiers.
Suspected militants from the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit) killed more two persons and injured three others in two separate incidents of shootouts on Saturday in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam.
The explosive, probably a crude bomb, went off at around 5 PM behind the old Railway station in the busy Amolapatty area below an electric pole, district Superintendent of Police Rana Bhuyan said
Encephalitis playing havoc in north Bengal, where 102 people have died, has spread its tentacles to Assam as well taking 43 lives there.
Taking exception to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan not mentioning the death of healthcare workers due to Covid-19 in his statement in Parliament, the Indian Medical Association has published a list of 382 doctors who died due to the viral disease and demanded that they be treated as "martyrs".
M C Mary Kom struck gold in the women's competition but India's men were denied a complete sweep by traditional powerhouses Cuba and Uzbekistan on an exciting final day of the India Open boxing tournament, in Delhi, on Thursday.
At least four militants belonging to two rebel groups were killed in Assam in two separate encounters with security forces on Wednesday morning.
A teenaged girl was killed and nine persons, including a woman, were seriously injured in a crude bomb blast by suspected militants in upper Assam's tea town Dibrugarh on Tuesday, police said.
The Bodo peace accord which was signed between the Government of India and now disbanded Bodo Liberation Tiger in February 2003 to pave the way for formation of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts Council is now under question with non-Bodos living in the BTC areas raising objections to it in the wake of Bodo pressing for their demand for a separate Bodoland state.
The union has sought clarification on the environmental impact of the project in the nearby areas of neighbouring Assam.