The security agencies have been warning that militants belonging to United National Liberation Front, People's Liberation Army and other banned groups had become part of the mobs and carrying out sneak attacks on security forces as well as giving directions to the agitators.
Autopsy reports of the victims of the Jiribam killings in Manipur have revealed brutal injuries, including multiple bullet wounds, severe trauma, and missing body parts. The reports, released on Wednesday, detail the horrific injuries suffered by the victims, including a 10-month-old infant, who had both eyeballs missing and a bullet injury to the knee. The killings, which took place in November, are part of the ongoing ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups in Manipur.
A shutdown has been observed since 5 am on Tuesday in Kuki-Zo majority areas in the hills to protest against the killing of suspected insurgents, the officials said.
The situation in and around Lailapur, which was rocked by deadly violence, along the interstate border remained calm with a large number of Central Reserve Police Force troops patrolling the National Highway-306, they said.
Operations are underway to trace three women and three children, who have been reported missing since the violence erupted in Jiribam on Monday, IGP (operations) IK Muivah said.
Ten Manipur tribal MLAs Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to withdraw Assam Rifles from security duties in the violence-hit state, saying its personnel have been putting their lives at risks to create buffer zones between the two warring communities.
One person was shot dead in his sleep while four others were killed in subsequent exchange of fire between armed men of two warring communities, a police officer said.
The Assam government wants to ban polygamy as "a component of the Uniform Civil Code" and will form a committee to examine whether the state legislature was empowered to prohibit the practice prevalent in parts of the state, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday.
A leading Kuki-Zo organisation in Manipur has demanded a judicial probe into the killing of 10 youths in a gunfight with the CRPF, raising questions about the paramilitary force's neutrality. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) also reiterated its demand for a separate administration for the Kuki-Zo community in the state, where ethnic violence between Kuki tribals and Meiteis has claimed over 250 lives since May last year. The ITLF claimed the post-mortem reports showed the youths were shot from the back, suggesting they were not engaged in a gunfight when they were killed. The organisation further alleged that CRPF personnel stationed nearby refused to intervene during an attack on Zairawn village, where a woman was killed. The ITLF has called for a political solution to the ongoing conflict, urging the Union Home Minister to consider a separate administration for the Kuki-Zo people.
"I am a son of Assam and if a single person who has not applied for NRC in the state gets citizenship, I will be the first to resign," the chief minister said on the sidelines of a programme at Sivasagar.
'Look at the post mortem reports. Every body (of the 10 Kuki-Zo youth who were killed) has almost 12 bullet marks on it.' 'Why do they have to fire so much even if they wanted to kill them?' 'One or two shots would be enough to kill them. Why then they had to fire so many bullets on them?'
The Manipur police dismissed the claims of Lt Gen PC Nair, a retired DG of Assam Rifles, in a recent media interview that no drones or rockets have been used in the attacks.
The Brahmaputra and Barak rivers along with their tributaries are in spate, even as floodwaters started receding from a few areas, they said.
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'Assam is not a dumping ground for Bangladeshi Hindu refugees,' says Assamese actor Ravi Sharma who joined the BJP in August and quit the party on December 10 in protest against the Citizenship Act.
However, official sources said the Assam Rifles -- a border guarding force -- primary mandate or task is not drug law enforcement.
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The meeting also decided that the two states will 'work out arrangement in coordination' with the centre to facilitate the functioning of the central peace-keeping force besides agreeing to continue talks to resolve the border dispute, according to top Mizoram officials.
A total of 246 militants of United Gorkha People's Organisation and Tiwa Liberation Army formally surrendered before Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati on Thursday.
The Kuki-Zo Council called for a 13-hour shutdown in Manipur's hill areas on Tuesday, demanding an investigation into the death of 11 people in a clash with security forces in Jiribam. The shutdown, which began at 5 am, saw schools, markets, and public transport remain closed. Various Kuki-Zo organizations, including the Kuki Students' Organisation, the Zomi Students' Federation, and the Hmar Students' Association, demanded a probe into the incident, accusing the Central Reserve Police Force of "treacherous murder." The Hmar Village Volunteers, who were identified by the Kuki-Zo groups as the victims, condemned the incident and called for intervention from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
'The significance and timing of the PM's start of the campaign journey from Silchar is a clear message that the Barak valley is a priority in his scheme of things,' notes Subimal Bhattacharjee.
Singh, 31, and Rashid, 56, won the recent Lok Sabha elections from Khadoor Sahib in Punjab and Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir, respectively, as Independents while being incarcerated.
Assam's longest border dispute is with Nagaland, which began since the creation of the state in 1963.
The toll due to the flood since mid-May is now 101, they said.
This is the fourth incident since the commencement of the conflict in Manipur wherein soldiers while on leave, on duty or their relatives have been targeted for nefarious interests by inimical elements.
At least five Assam Police personnel were killed while defending the "constitutional boundary" of the state with Mizoram and more than 60 people injured, including an SP, as the festering border dispute between the two northeastern states erupted into a bloody conflict on Monday.
The Assam government also decided to revoke an advisory issued earlier against travel to Mizoram, they said.
Seven people, including two children, were killed and two others seriously injured in a landslide triggered by incessant rain in south Assam's Hailakandi district on Tuesday, an official said.
While Mizoram alleged that personnel of the Assam police fired on its civilians injuring one, the neighbouring state claimed that the men in uniform only returned the fire after miscreants from the other side of the border sprayed bullets on them.
The militants attacked an India Reserve Battalion camp at Naranseina in the Moirang police station area, they said.
'It is in the interest of China and Pakistan to give a bad name to the Indian Army and remove AFSPA 'completely' from the north east.' 'Hopefully, better sense will prevail and the ground realities of the army countering insurgency in the north east acknowledged,' asserts Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act or AFSPA was extended by another six months in Manipur on Wednesday barring 19 police stations falling under the Imphal valley and an area that shares its boundary with neighbouring Assam.
During the session, General Dwivedi was asked about the overall challenges for the India Army going forward and learning from the border row in eastern Ladakh.
The situation along the Mizoram-Assam border has been on the boil since June-end when Assam Police allegedly took control over an area known as 'Aitlang hnar' about 5 km from Vairengte, accusing the neighbouring state of encroaching on its territory.
The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Manipur government, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file reports elaborating on the status of probe and the charge sheets filed in cases of ethnic-violence to help it take a decision on whether the trials can commence in Assam or be undertaken in Manipur.
During the three-day mourning period, the national flag will fly at half-mast and there will be no public entertainment, a notification issued by the Assam government said.
While Himanta Biswa Sarma scotched rumours that he would be the king this time, political sources in Guwahati maintained that he, and not Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had a bigger say in choosing candidates, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
In the last 24 hours, eight people have died after drowning in flood waters -- two each in Barpeta and Karimganj districts, one each in Darrang, Hailakandi, Nalbari and Sonitpur districts and eight people are still missing.
The flood situation in the three districts of Barak Valley -- Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi -- remained critical as the water levels of Barak and Kushiara rivers continued to rise, inundating vast tracts of land, officials said.
The chief minister's statement came in the backdrop of tension between the two Northeastern states following alleged encroachment of land in Cachar district by the people of Mizoram.
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