After imposing ban on calling bandh in the state by various organisations with immediate effect, Assam government has imposed ban on holding all kinds of procession, rallies etc in the State for one month in view of the sensitive situation prevailing in the state in the wake of communal violence in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council and adjoining areas.
The opposition Asom Gana Parishad on Friday organised a massive rally of its supporters and people in Guwahati to register its protest against the 'failure' of the Assam government to stop occurrence of violence in Bodoland Territorial Council and adjoining areas as well as demanding deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants from the state.
Authorities in the Bodoland Territorial Council have called for a phase-wise rehabilitation to ensure that no outsiders get rehabilitated in the area taking advantage of the adverse situation in Assam.
The toll in continuing violence in western Assam reached 25 on Tuesday after four persons were killed in police firing in Kokrajhar district, where shoot-at-sight orders and indefinite curfew remained in force.
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.
Two days after all the doctors in the district civil hospital fled due to threats from insurgents, the Assam government on Monday shunted out Superintendent of Police in Kokrajhar district of western Assam, P K Dutta. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday admitted that the situation in Bodoland Territorial Council areas, where Kokrajhar district is located, was deteriorating. Doctors of Rup Nath Brahma Civil Hospital in the district fled.
The situation in Assam's trouble-torn Bodoland Territorial Administered Districts was "moving towards normalcy" and police have set up 119 new police pickets to help rehabilitation of the affected people, official sources said on Tuesday.
Five persons were killed in fresh violence in lower Assam's Chirang district on Saturday taking the toll to 85 since ethnic trouble erupted last month.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday agreed that presence of sufficient forces in time would have prevented the ethnic violence raging in the state from assuming such menacing proportions.
Three persons were injured, one of them seriously, when a crude bomb exploded at a village near Goreswar town in Baksa district under violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council in Assam on Sunday.
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 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.
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.
'Tarun Gogoi is incompetent to be chief minister. We heard Intelligence had warned him about possible aggression. Why did Gogoi fail to react?' 'Modi and his men have been spreading separatist messages across Assam for years. There is no way the BJP can shake off its responsibility now.' Former Assam minister Rameswar Dhanowar, who demanded Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's resignation for his failure to prevent the recent violence in Bodoland Territorial Areas District, speaks to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com
The agreement paves the way for the creation of a Bodoland Territorial Council.
Suspected militants belonging to the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction) have abducted a senior engineer hailing from Andhra Pradesh.
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.
The army has been kept on stand-by as tension mounted in Assam's Baksa district where bodies of three more persons kidnapped by suspected National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit militants were retrieved from Beki River on Sunday.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said all clauses of the Bodo Accord signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Government last year will be implemented within two-and-a-half years.
Several Assamese-origin students studying in American universities met with Indian embassy officials to deliver a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee on the killing of over 32 Muslims in Assam as a result of election-related violence there. Aziz Haniffa reports
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 constituencies spread across lower and central Assam will have 12,699 polling stations where 1,04,35,271 voters will be able exercise their franchise.
Days after Al Qaeda issued a video threatening to carry out its campaign in India, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday said the terror group is trying to set up base in the state and had "tacit understanding" with United Liberation Front of Asom.
'The BJP's tie-ups with the Bodoland People's Front and the Asom Gana Parishad have incurred the wrath of local party leaders and workers ahead of next month's assembly elections.'
The militants accosted Prasanta Kumar, shot him, tortured him and then dumped his body at Tangla area.
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its two Assam allies -- the Asom Gana Parishad and the United People's Party Liberal -- on Wednesday 'almost finalised' their seat-sharing pact for the Assam assembly polls and a formal announcement will be made in a day or two, sources said.
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.
Bodo tribals influence as many as 30 seats. No wonder, national parties are keen to forge alliances with Bodo groups.
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.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday asked for a probe by the National Investigation Agency into the violence by Bodo militant group NDFB(S) in the state and vowed to apprehend those responsible for the killings.
At least five persons were injured, one of them critically, when police fired rubber bullets at an unauthorised rally by the All Koch-Rajbongshi Students' Union in Basugaon in western Assam's Chirang district while a bandh called by a militant outfit shutdown the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Councilarea in Assam on Tuesday.
'This bitterness will be more in Jammu area than in Kashmir.'
The counting of votes for the assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry would be held on Thursday morning with trends expected early.
Nine more bodies were recovered from a village in Baksa district on Saturday morning, taking the toll to 32 in the violence unleashed by National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit militants in Bodoland Territorial Administration Districts area in Assam.
Over 5,000 people lodged in relief camps in Kokrajhar district of Assam are being shifted to make-shift relief camps in their native villages or close to their native villages under the protection of 24x7 fixed security pickets.
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 recent bouts of violence by suspected Bodo militias that killed over 30 hapless 'Muslims, mostly children and women, and rendered several thousands homeless in lower Assam recently, once again offers a shocking glimpse of the horrendous game of violent communalism being played by the Congress government of Assam in furtherance of its cynical power politics for the last several years.' 'The result is, the state is a simmering communal cauldron that sporadically erupts at the slightest real or imagined provocation,' says R N Ravi.
The Centre on Saturday made available additional forces to violence-hit Assam as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the "cowardly" terror attack and promised all measures to restore peace there.
Heavily-armed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) militants unleashed violence in two districts of Assam falling under Bodoland Territorial Administration area, killing 11 people, including three children, and leaving three others seriously injured since Thursday night.