At least three persons were killed and about 30 others injured when a powerful bomb explosion ripped through the coach No 8209 of Guwahati-Tinsukia passenger train near Diphu Railway station in Karbi Anglong Hill district of Assam at around 8:15 this morning.
Meanwhile, Dr Singh on Monday gave assurance to 24 religious and cultural heads (satradhikars) of Vaishnavite monasteries from Majuli, the largest inhabited river island in the world, to continue the campaign for acquiring world heritage tag for the endangered river island located in the bosom of mighty Brahmaputra River in Jorhat district of Upper Assam.
A powerful bomb exploded on a railway track in Karbi Anglong district of central Assam early on Thursday morning. According to the police, the attack was targeted at the Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express by militants from the suspected Karbi Longri National Liberation Front insurgent group. Nobody was injured in the blast. The incident occurred five kms away from Diphu, just after a security escort engine for checking the tracks passed the area.
Central will face West Zone in the semi-final at the Alur grounds from July 5. In the second semifinal, North Zone will take on South Zone at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The AFSPA, often criticised as a draconian law, gives armed forces operating in disturbed areas sweeping powers to search, arrest and open fire if they deem it necessary.
To assess relief and rehabilitation requirements of violence-affected people, a team of seven senior central officials will visit Assam on Tuesday.
Police claimed that it was an operation carried out by 20-odd armed militants belonging to the proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom and tribal militant group Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front.
'Women' as a political constituency appears to be an idea that has come of age. It is changing India in ways that we only dimly understand, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
Former women militants are being trained in making sanitary napkins by the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) administration, with commercial production of a unit expected to commence soon.
Restrictions under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) continued to be imposed in the clash site and surrounding areas, they said.
The issue was first raised by Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha during Question Hour, when he asked Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan if the land in the Kaliabor area was allotted under the state's 'Basundhara' scheme.
The representatives of outfits, including three breakaway factions, deposited their arms to the chief minister at a ceremony organised by the home department Guwahati.
Two adult Rhinos with their horns chopped off were found dead today in separate forest areas of central Assam.
The Centre has rushed five teams of medical experts to the six bird flu-hit districts of Assam, to check if the infection has spread to humans. But state authorities on Monday claimed that the bird flu outbreak has been brought under control and no fresh incidents have been reported in the last 24 hours.Central teams of medical experts have not found any cases of humans being infected, informed a senior medical official.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said it was only "temporary" and did not disclose the reason behind the decision.
A group of villagers from Meghalaya allegedly vandalised and burnt down a forest office in Assam's West Karbi Anglong district, following the killing of six people in violence that occurred in a disputed area along the border between the two states, officials claimed on Wednesday.
The Punjab Police has already invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against the Khalistan sympathiser.
Gross GST collections rose by 9.1 per cent to about Rs 1.84 lakh crore in February, boosted by domestic consumption and indicating potential economic revival. As per the official data released on Saturday, on a gross basis, mop up from Central GST stood at Rs 35,204 crore, State GST at Rs 43,704 crore, Integrated GST at Rs 90,870 crore and compensation cess of Rs 13,868 crore.
Students from de-notified tribes, nomadic tribes and semi-nomadic tribes will receive coaching fees of up to 1,20,000 and additional benefits for preparing for entrance examinations such as JEE, NEET, CLAT and the NDA.
At least four Hindi-speaking people were shot dead and two others injured by militants from the banned outfit National Democratic Front of Bodoland in Assam on Tuesday.Heavily-armed NDFB ultras fired from AK-47 rifles on a group of people near Naharani tea estate at Rangapara in central Assam's Sonitput district at 9.30 am, killing the four, police said. Besides two women, a man and a boy from the same family were shot dead by the militants.
There is a vertical split in the proscribed outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam with its hardliner faction led by fugitive commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah forming a new 'central committee' by dropping its eight top leaders including its Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, who is now engaged in peace talks with the government.
The Hamren-bound passengers reported the incident at the Milu police outpost under Kheroni police station, about 130 km from Diphu.
'It has the potential to sow seeds of furthering discord when the direction of the discourse is aimed at propagating the perceived supremacy of 'cultural nationalism' from a distant past over the prevailing dominance of 'Constitutional nationalism',' argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
The exlosions were carried out by ULFA militants.
'The BJP lacks a credible mass leader who matches Mamata Banerjee's popularity.' 'Given the division of votes among Opposition parties, the West Bengal government's dole-giving strategy, and the consolidation of the poor, significant sections of scheduled caste groups and Muslim minorities behind the ruling party, it will be difficult to dislodge the Trinamool from power.'
Sarma, 53, has been enjoying a Z category cover provided by the Central Reserve Police Force VIP security unit for his travel in the north eastern states till now.
Three Hindi-speaking traders were shot dead by suspected KLNLF militants in Central Assam's Nagaon district early Monday morning, police said.
Two persons including a woman were killed and several houses damaged when a wild elephant went on a rampage at Junglebasti village in Amlakhi Tea Estate near Kaliabor in Nagaon district of Central Assam on Sunday night.
The funeral of 10 Kuki-Zo youths, who were killed in an alleged gunfight with CRPF, has been delayed pending the release of post-mortem reports. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), representing the Kuki-Zo community, is exploring the possibility of conducting a second autopsy in Churachandpur. The youths' bodies were airlifted to Churachandpur from Assam's Silchar town on Saturday. The incident follows a series of clashes between security forces and militants in the region. The post-mortem examination of the 10 Kuki-Zo youths, who ITLF claimed were village volunteers as against the Manipur government's assertion that they were militants, was conducted at Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) in Assam. The bodies have been kept in the local hospital morgue for the time being.
A group of retired forest officers has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the immediate scrapping of the 10,000-acre safari project in Haryana's Aravallis, arguing that it will harm the environment and wildlife. They highlight the "alarming destruction" of the Aravallis due to mining, quarrying, real estate development, and deforestation, and warn that the project could disturb aquifers crucial for water-starved districts. The retired officers also emphasize the importance of protecting the Aravallis, which is the only significant forest cover in Haryana, for its role in restoring humidity and rainfall in the region.
Dismissing his Assam counterpart's claim, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday asserted in the assembly that Mukroh village on the disputed inter-state border, where a violent clash claimed six lives last year, is a part of the hill state.
'They know everyone and have everyone's horoscope. If they feel Himanta Biswa Sarma is the right man for Assam, they will give it to me, if they feel Sarbananda Sonowal is the right man, they will give it to him, or if they feel both of them are not good, let's bring another person'
Sarma claimed there has been a lot of improvement in the neighbouring state in the last month.
The government's assurance came amid reports of Meiteis fleeing the state following an 'advisory' by an ex-militant's association of Mizoram asking them to leave due to tension triggered by the viral video of two women being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur.
Major rivers of the state, including the Brahmaputra, were flowing above the danger level at different places.
Over 100 people have been arrested so far in the crackdown, according to Punjab Police.
The BJP's victory in the Delhi Assembly elections has sparked speculation over who will lead the next government. Several prominent leaders, including Pravesh Verma, Ashish Sood, Pawan Sharma, Vijender Gupta, and Satish Upadhyay, are in the running for the chief minister's post. The party's national leadership is expected to make the final decision, leaving the contenders in a state of anticipation.
Four persons, including a forest guard, were killed in violence at the Assam-Meghalaya border in West Karbi Anglong district in the early hours of Tuesday after a truck transporting illegal timber was intercepted, officials said.
'Hatred increases with every killing.' 'It sets one family against another.' 'The sooner it is stopped, the better.'
High nitrate levels have been found in groundwater of 440 districts across India, with 20 per cent of the samples collected exceeding the permissible nitrate concentration, the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has said in a report.
