Security measures have been tightened as the anti-talks faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam has called for Assam bandh on April 20 in protest against the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Guwahati to kick-start the platinum jubilee celebrations of Assam assembly.
In an apparent attempt to placate his masters on foreign soils, Paresh Barua, the commander-in-chief of the anti-talks faction of the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam, on Monday called upon the people of Assam and other parts of the region to resist 'colonial' Indian government's bid to set up BrahMos and Akash missiles on the soils of Nagaland and Assam as it would make them target of 'Red China' that claims territory of 'so called' Arunachal Pradesh.
A bandh called by various organisations in protest against the killing of a 14-year-old girl Purnima Rajak in a bomb blast on Tuesday evening, paralysed life in Dibrugarh city as well as the entire district on Thursday.
Set to retain power for the third consecutive term, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday said bringing all insurgents groups, including the United Liberation Front of Asom, to the negotiating table would be his main priority to ensure lasting peace in the state
In a statement, the pro-talks faction of the ULFA said: "The independence India attained 64 years back has virtually no meaning for poor farmers and rural folk in Assam who have been reeling under perennial problem of flood and erosion while the government has miserably failed to mitigate their agony"
The arrest of top United Liberation Front of Assam leaders and their eagerness for talks raised hopes of a negotiated settlement to the decades-long insurgency problem in Assam, which witnessed a relatively peaceful year.
A Bangladeshi court is set to frame charges against 52 suspects, including United Liberation Front of Asom chief Paresh Barua and top Islamist leader Matiur Rahman Nizami in the country's biggest ever arms smuggling case when 10-truck loads of arms destined for banned Indian separatist group were seized.
The 84-year old veteran Congressman, who died from post-COVID complications on Monday, was a Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist.
Chetia, who was in Bangladesh since his arrest by the neighbouring country's police in 1997, was handed over to India at the personal intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and through active involvement of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
With several key members of ULFA surrendering, the outfit's leader Paresh Barua who has been anti-talks, has been left isolated
The government on Wednesday said the United Liberation Front of Asom's top leader Arabinda Rajkhowa was "apprehended" by the Border Security Force on the Meghalaya-Bangladesh border and later arrested by the Assam police as he was wanted in connection with several cases
Julius Dorphang, who was wanted in connection with a sex-racket case involving a 14-year old girl, was on Saturday arrested from his hideout in neighbouring Assam.
Opening up borders between India and countries like Bangladesh can make the North-East region the fulcrum of India's 'Look East' policy.
'The Bharat Ratna should have been given a long time ago. Not just to irk the Chinese, but to recognise His Holiness for what he is and how we have benefited immensely from his presence in India.' 'I don't think there's been a better ambassador for India's philosophical and cultural past than the Dalai Lama.'
Thirty nine militants including 32 from the banned United Liberation Front of Asom surrendered before the Indian Army's on Friday at the headquarters of the 21 Mountain Division at Rangiya about 45 kilometers from Assam's capital Guwahati. Of the 39, 32 were from the 709 battalion of the ULFA while four are from Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front and three from All Adivasi National Liberation Army.
Several insurgents, including 28 members of the banned United Liberation Front of Assam, laid down their arms at the Dinjan Army base in Tinsukia district of eastern Assam on Tuesday.The Army informed that besides the 28 ULFA cadres, seven members from Naga rebel groups and three members from a tribal outfit called Karbi Longri North Cavhar Hills Liberation Front also gave up their arms.The rebels deposited a huge cache of arms and ammunition.
Army man Hanamanthappa Koppad, who survived for six days buried under tonnes of snow, is a highly-motivated soldier and has served in difficult areas for 13 years in the army.
"We are not satisfied with the sluggish pace of investigation by the CBI into abduction and killing of my father. We have serious doubts that some influential quarters may try to derail the investigation. So, we have decided to move the high court requesting it to review the progress of investigation," said Praveen Kumar Gautom, son of the slain FCI official.
In severe blow to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom, 31 militants, mostly from the ranks of the proscribed insurgent group surrendered before the army on Monday.
At least two person was killed and 17 others injured when a bomb rigged to a cycle exploded at Alipurduar town in north Bengal on Wednesday.
Eleven militants from two outfits, including four from the banned United Liberation Front of Assom, were arrested by the police from different parts of Guwahati on Monday. The Assam police also recovered incriminating documents and cash from the arrested militants. Eight of the arrested militants belonged to the Adivasi militants group, the All Adivasi National Liberation Army. The police claim that the militants had sneaked into the city.
The K N Saikia Commission has indicted former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for the secret killings of the relatives of United Liberation Front of Assom's cadres.
A top official in Assam Police informed that two ULFA militants were engaged in an encounter by a joint team of the army and police at Halikuchi on the bank of a river in Rangiya sub-division of Kamrup district on Thursday afternoon. Pranjal Deka was killed in the exchange of fire while the other militant managed to flee by crossing the river.
At least 18 militants of three proscribed groups, including 13 from the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), laid down arms and surrendered at the base on the 2 Mountain Division of Indian Army at Dinjan in eastern Assam's Tinsukia district on Monday. The militants surrendered before GOC of 2 Mountain Division, Major General Jatinder Singh and Deputy Commissioner of the Tinsukia district, Dr K K Dwivedi besides other senior Army and district officials.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday visited the victims of the serial blasts in a hospital in Guwahati and said he would chair a meeting of the unified command in the wake of the explosions, suspected to have been carried out by the banned ULFA killing five people.
Two suspected United Liberation Front of Asom militants were killed in an encounter with the army in north Assam's Lakhimpur district while two other persons were injured in a blast that rocked a small western Assam town in two separate incidents violence in the state on Saturday. Security sources informed that two suspected ULFA militants were killed following a gunbattle with a team of personnel from the 2nd Bihar Regiment.
Acting on a tip off, the Gorkha regiment raided the Mechaki reserve forest area at Hankhati where the militants, including hardcore ULFA ultra Joond Bhuyan, were sheltered. When the militants opened fire at the approaching militants, the securitymen retaliated and heavy exchange of fire continued for nearly an hour. In the shootout, Captain S Choudhury sustained grievous injuries and was airlifted to the Air Force hospital at Roroiya, where he was declared dead.
Prabal Neog, commander of the 28th battalion of the outfit, had issued orders to lower rank cadres to carry out subversions on I-Day, police said.
Police sources said that the militant's target, Sub-Divisional Police Officer Jayanta Sarothi Bora, escaped unhurt as the blast narrowly missed him. The bomb was planted on the road by suspected ULFA militants.
The army chief said Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI was active in the region. He said ISI may be involved in the recent bomb blasts in Guwahati and other places of Assam.
Assam has sounded a red alert in the wake of serial blasts which rocked in Ahmedabad and Bangalore.
He denied that his state government was showing softness towards the ULFA and was giving them a chance to regroup by agreeing to ceasefire.
The CJI, who hails from Assam, said that NRC is neither a 'new or a novel idea' as it found expression as early as in 1951 and the current exercise is an attempt to update the 1951 NRC.
The army intensified operations against the militant group within Assam and the Manabhum reserve forest area in Arunachal Pradesh bordering eastern Assam's Tinsukia district.
Earlier in the day, suspected ULFA militants detonated a blast under an Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited pipeline carrying crude oil at Lakwa in Sivasagar district of Upper Assam.
Four persons were killed and 32 others injured when militants belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom detonated three powerful explosions in Tinsukia district of eastern Assam.
In the backdrop of stepped up violence in Assam by United Liberation Front of Asom militants, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday met President A P J Abdul Kalam.
The suspected militants fled the scene after hurling the grenade.
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