The Gauhati high court on Thursday granted bail to Pradeep Brahma, Bodo People's Front MLA of Kokrajhar (West) constituency in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council area, who was arrested on August 22 on charges of inciting the mob during the recent flare-up in the region
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.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday hinted at the involvement of a third force behind the raging ethnic violence in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTC) areas of Kokrajhar and Chirang.
Bodoland People's Front leader and executive member of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council Mono Kumar Brahma was remanded to 14-day judicial custody by the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Kokrajhar on Monday. The BPF leader was later admitted to Rupnath Brahma Civil Hospital in Kokrajhar after he fell ill.
For reasons political as well as social, the Bodo tribe and the agrarian religious minority community have been living for decades in an atmosphere of mistrust under the jurisdiction of the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous district Council.
Worried about their security in the strife-torn Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council in Assam, the religious minority community living in the area has demanded that they must not be subjected to 'harassment' anymore in the name of detection of illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
Another Telengana is brewing in Assam with the state's largest tribal group, Bodos reviving their old demand for statehood and it is official now, thanks to the raging Telengana movement in Andhra Pradesh.
The recurrence of violence in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTC) area of Assam during the last few days despite heavy deployment of forces and continued imposition of night curfew has proved that the hatred between the two communities -- involved in the clashes that erupted on July 21 last -- has run deeper than realised by the political leadership.
Life was hit in lower Assam for the second day on Tuesday in three bandhs called to press for Bodoland and Kamtapur, while Karbi Anglong, which had erupted over statehood demand on the lines of Telangana, was slowly limping back to normal.
Spells of communal as well as ethnic violence, that have become the bane of life in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas of Assam, which have claimed 731 lives since 1993 in the area.
A group of prominent policy makers, scholars, activists and intellectuals have called to 'Reduce rhetoric, spread goodwill, not ill-will' in Assam in the wake of the violence that rocked Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council and adjoining areas in later part of July that drove lakhs out of their homes and left about 98 persons dead from Bodo and Muslim communities.
The winter session of the Assam assembly started on a stormy note on Monday over the issue of availability of illegal weapons in the communally sensitive Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas that was rocked by a spell of riots involving Bodo tribe and Muslim communities during July this year that left over 100 dead and rendered about 4 lakh homeless.
The worst-affected were the students traveling from Northeast to New Delhi and other big cities to seek admission in colleges and different professional institutions after their Xth and XIIth results were declared.
The Assam police and security forces have seized 344 illegal weapons from extremists from the troubled Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam from 2012 to July, 2014.
Normalcy is returning to the violence-affected districts of Baksa and Kokrajhar under Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts Council areas in Assam. The state government claims that there has been no incident in the last 48 hours as the security apparatus along with army is working relentlessly to restore peace.
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.
Indefinite curfew has been enforced in troubled Baksa district of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas of Assam following the killing of a youth leader, Manoj Das, of Asom Sena by unidentified gunmen on Wednesday evening at Mushalpur area.
A bandh called by the All Bodoland Minority Students' Union and eight other non-Bodo organisations since Friday night has paralysed life in the violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam on Monday.
A bandh called by All Bodoland Minority Students' Union and eight other non-Bodo organisations in protests against killing of at least eight innocent non-Bodo persons by Bodo militant group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit) since Friday has night paralysed life in the violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam on Monday.
A civilian was killed and two army jawans when a group of suspected militants suspected of the anti-talks National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction) ambushed an army search party at Amjora village under Kajigaon police station in western Assam's Kokrajhar district on Wednesday.
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.
An umbrella organization of several ethnic groups has decided to launch an agitation opposing the statehood demands raised by a number of ethnic groups in Assam. including Bodos, Karbis and Koch-Rajbongshis.
The Centre's decision to constitute a one-member panel headed by former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai to consider the demand for a separate Bodoland state has triggered fresh unrest in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas of Assam.
While the BPF and the UPPL are considered rivals in the Bodo-dominated areas, there was no pre-poll alliance among other parties as well.
It is possible that the December clashes in Assam merely exploited an issue simmering for decades. The motivation, however, was something else, says Aditi Phadnis
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa on Tuesday said that the Centre is likely to sign a peace accord with militant organisations from the state's Adivasi communities within September.
'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.
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.
Indian intelligence agencies have often claimed that left-wing extremists are trying to make inroads in the militancy-hit regions of north-east to foment further unrest. But Jaideep Saikia, noted terrorism and conflict analyst, claims, "People who speak of Maoism taking roots in the north-east have not read history".
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's customary address to the joining sitting of Parliament on the first day of the budget session.