United Liberation Front of Assam had survived despite constant pressure from the security forces in the state because of their shelters in neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar.
With dissidence plaguing the Congress in Assam, All India Congress Committee General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday scotched speculations of replacing Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and warned that indiscipline in the party would be dealt with strictly.
The Assam government has hailed the decision of the 'A' and 'C' companies of the 28 th battalion of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom to call a unilateral truce. The 28th battalion is considered the most potent force of the banned ULFA.
In a sharp defiance of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Congress MPs and legislators from the two hill districts of Assam -- Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao -- have taken an initiative to launch a forum to demand a separate state comprising two hill districts.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday called upon the fugitive commander in chief of the United Liberation Front of Asom Paresh Baruah to come out of the clutches of the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence and other forces inimical to India and hold talks with the government of India instead of engineering killings of innocent people in Assam.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday claimed that top leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom who are either in captivity or out on bail were willing to hold talks with the government and had sent "feelers" to him in this regard.
The chief magistrate's court in Kamrup district, Assam, has directed the Criminal Investigation Department of the Assam police to conduct a probe into the allegation levelled against Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and others for cutting and eating a cake painted in colours of the National Flag at a Republic Day tea party in January.
The Central and Assam governments are for immediate "direct talks" with the top leadership of United Liberation Front of Asom to resolve the insurgency problem of the state, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said on Tuesday.
The anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam has called for 12-hout Assam bandh on May 26 to protest the visit of the united Progressive Alliance chairman and Congress President Sonia Gandhi to Guwahati on that day.
The 12-hour Assam bandh called by the All Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU) on Tuesday turned violent with government officials and mediapersons attacked leading to imposition of indefinite curfew in some areas.
In view of the continued insurgency and sprouting of at least new insurgent groups during the year gone by, the Assam government has vowed to adopt a three-pronged strategy in the New Year to tackle the problem more effectively.
On Monday, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed the need to set up a comprehensive and coordinated strategy to nip the problem of extremism in the North-East in the bud.
In a meeting mediated by Union Minister of State for Home, Khiren Rijiju, the Chief Ministers of Assam and Nagaland, Tarun Gogoi and T R Zeliang, on Thursday promised to take joint efforts to resolve the vexed boundary dispute.
Even as public protests are rife against outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom in eastern Assam district of Tinsukia over deaths of three innocent children in a freak grenade explosion on the afternoon of January 9, in a village near the oil refinery town of Digboi, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday directed the state police chief to gear up vigil and beef security measures.
In the wake of massive surrender of militants from different insurgent outfits in the state in several spells of late, Assam government is finding it hard to mobilise resources to take care of the Himalayan task of rehabilitation of these surrendered militants who have responded to the call for peace from the government.
Speaking to the media at his official residence in Guwahati on Monday, Gogoi pointed out that it was for the first time the prime minister of the country offered safe passage to ULFA leaders willing to come over to hold dialogue.
The government is determined to start negotiation with the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom sans the participation of its fugitive 'commander-in-chief' Paresh Barua. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday said that dialogue with ULFA will start as soon as the outfit will take a formal decision in its general council meeting.
Ten companies of additional central forces arrived in Assam to contain violence along the inter-state boundary, Gogoi informed, adding that so far 110 miscreants involved in the strife had been arrested by Assam Police.
Deviating from his earlier stand on the release of top leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom from jail to facilitate talks with the outfit, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh would have the final say in the matter.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was greeted with black flags by the students of Gauhati university while he was travelling through the varsity campus from the airport to his official residence after his arrival in the state.
Eve-teasers better watch out in bustling Guwahati as a special women force of Assam Police called 'Virangana' (brave woman) has been deployed on the city streets to curb the growing trend of eve-teasing.
The rebel members of Legislative Assembly of the ruling Congress in Assam on Saturday apparently failed to cause much discomfort for veteran Tarun Gogoi, the chief minister, in the special sitting of the legislature party. At the end Gogoi came out victorious with all the MLAs promising to try winning all the 14 Lok Sabha seats for the party in Assam in the next general election.
In a major boost to the morale of security forces engaged sustained counter-insurgency operation Assam, 412 militants including 22 women of the Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF) laid down arms before Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi in presence of senior police and Army officials at Diphu in Karbi Anglong hill district of Assam.
The Pramathesh Baruah Lifetime Achievement Award instituted by the Cultural Affairs Department of Assam government was presented to the cultural icon of North East India by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in a solemn function organized in Guwahati on Friday night for his all-round contribution towards culture and nation building.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday informed the state assembly that the arrested chairman of United Liberation Front of Asom Arabinda Rajkhowa and foreign secretary Sashadhar Choudhury had been in Bangladesh since 1990, while finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika and deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah shifted to Bangladesh on a later date.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has sent a strong word of precaution to the group of dissidence within the Congress Legislature Party by reminding them that he has been the chief minister of the State since 2001 only because of the confidence imposed on his by the people of Assam and will remain in the chair as long as the people desire so.
Normal life disrupted in Assam during a statewide bandh called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
The United Liberation Front of Asom doves, the pro-talks faction of the ULFA, has demanded full autonomy for Assam within the framework of the Constitution, after detaching itself from the banned militant group's demand for the 'restoration of Assam's sovereignty'.Mrinal Hazarika, president of the ULFA doves, submitted a 18-point charter of demand to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, to resolve the insurgency problem in the state.
Admitting that there have been lapses on the part of police in dealing with the molestation case of a girl in Guwahati, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has given them a deadline of 48 hours to arrest youths involved in the incident. The chief minister issued the deadline on Friday night.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday appealed to students and people from Assam and other parts of the north-east to refrain from rushing back to their home states in panic. The chief minister made the comment in the wake of reports of mass exodus of people, particularly students, who are afraid of a backlash following the widespread violence in lower Assam.
A team of Central Bureau of Investigation officials will visit violence-hit areas of Assam on Thursday after Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi decided to recommend a probe by the Central agency into the clashes.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday held parleys with the chief ministers of Maharashtra and Haryana amidst the possibility of a change of guard in some of the states where it is in power as the party prepares for a massive rejig in the wake of its unprecedented debacle in Lok Sabha polls.
Sixty-eight militants, 66 belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom and two from All Adivasi National Liberation Army on Thursday laid down arms.
Assam Congress on Friday decided to take collective responsibility for its "failure" soon after Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi announced he would resign taking full responsibility for the party's debacle in the Lok Sabha polls in the state.
The ULFA anti-talks faction triggered a blast at Assam Pradesh Congres Committee headquarter on March 14 in which three Congress leaders were injured. But Gogoi on Friday tried to make light of the ULFA threat saying that the threat had been there since a long time.
The peace talks process with top United Liberation Front of Asom leaders has started, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said on Monday but ruled out that the state's sovereignty would be on the agenda. "The process for talks has started but no breakthrough achieved. However, the government is optimistic," Gogoi told reporters in Guwahati.The issue of 'sovereignity of Assam', however, would never be on the agenda for talks, he said.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday requested his Bihar counterpart to provide free medical treatment to the injured passengers of New Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express that derailed at Chapra in Bihar.
A couple days after Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi pledged to focus on ensuring security and welfare of women and girl child in Assam in the wake of ghastly Delhi-bus rape of a student and her subsequent death, a senior leader of his party (Congress) was Thursday arrested by Assam police on charges of rape.
The chairperson of the National Commission for Women Mamata Sharma on Wednesday recommended Assam government to provide government job for the victim of July 9 Guwahati molestation episode besides proper counseling and rehabilitation.