The incident occurred when a 48-wagon goods train carrying petroleum products from Numaligarh Refinery Limited in Golaghat district of Assam to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh were forcibly brought to a halt by miscreants at Siding, a densely-forested area with an intention to siphon out petroleum fuels from those wagons. However, attempts to break open a wagon loop led to 'toxic emission'.
The 12-hour Assam bandh was called by the youth wing of former chief minister Prafulla Mahanta's new party to protest against the recent ethnic violence in Karbi Anglong district.
The militant group has a strong bastion in the forest areas along the border areas of Golaghat and Karbi Anglong district of Assam. It has recently spread its tentacles to the tea belt area of the Udalguri district of North Assam.
Two militants from the outfit All Adivasi National Liberation Army died in an encounter at Hatidandi in Karbi Anglong hill district of Assam on Friday afternoon.
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.
Dhubri is the worst hit with over 8.72 lakh people affected, followed by Barpeta with more than 4.78 lakh people and Goalpara with around 4.28 lakh population.
Dhubri is the worst-hit district, followed by Cachar and Darrang.
A superintendent of police and another police official were killed in an encounter when tribal militants from the Karbi People's Liberation Tigers ambushed them in Karbi Anglong district of central Assam late on Thursday night.
Two more died in the state today. With this, the total number of people losing their lives in this year's flood and landslide has gone up to 115 across the state -- 89 were killed in flood-related incidents and 26 in landslides.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, was completely withdrawn in Meghalaya in 2018, Tripura in 2015 and Mizoram in the 1980s.
Sarma said his government will take further steps based on the suggestions of the home minister.
With two more deaths, the fatalities due to flood this year has gone up to 18.
Two poachers were gunned down by security forces of KazirangaNational Park in an encounter in Jorhat, a senior forest official said on Monday.
The India Meteorological Department has issued a 'Red Alert' and predicted 'very heavy' to 'extremely heavy' rainfall across several districts of Assam till Thursday.
Three poachers were on Wednesday killed in two encounters with forest guards in Kaziranga National Park in Assam. On a tip off about the entry of a group of poachers into the park, forest guards launched an operation in Burapahar Range, Divisional Forest Officer S K Sil Sarma said.
'The entire shoot paused after that.' 'There was a heaviness on set -- a shared recognition of the horror we were portraying.'
Assam's flood situation remained critical on Tuesday with over 6.71 lakh people affected in 20 districts in the second wave of flooding this year, as the Indian Air Force (IAF) rescued 13 stranded fishermen from the severely-hit Dibrugarh district, an official said.
Each of Assam's border disputes has its own legacy of claims and counter-claims:
Currently, the Brahmaputra at Guwahati, Nimatighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur, Goalpara and Dhubri towns, while the Barak at AP Ghat in Cachar and Badarpurghat in Karimganj are flowing above the danger mark.
Security forces in Assam arrested 26 tribal insurgents, including 18 belonging to the NDFB-S, accused of massacring Adivasi villagers on Monday.
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.
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.
The total number of people killed in flooding and landslides in the state this year has gone up to 76. While 50 people were killed in inundation, 26 died due to landslides.
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.
The army, SDRF and NDRF are assisting the district administrations in evacuating the affected population to safer places, the authority said.
The belongings of the 'sadhus' were thrown open by the mob, videographed and shared on social media, further fuelling the hearsay.
The situation has improved marginally in Tripura and Mizoram in the past 24 hours.
According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, one person was killed at Sissibargaon in Dhemaji district on Saturday.
After several days of intensive statehood agitation by various ethnic communities, the situation in Assam limped back to normalcy on Wednesday. Trains services were restored while movement of vehicles including trucks carrying essential commodities resumed on the highways connecting the Assam and the Northeast to the rest of the country.
Assam has suffered huge losses in terms of lives, property, cropped land, dwellings and infrastructure in three waves of flood that have hit the state so far this year. Last week's deluge wreaked havoc in Kamrup and Goalpara claiming 67 lives and leaving behind a trail of destruction.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday asserted that the Bharatiya Janata Party will win more than 300 Lok Sabha seats across the country in next year's general elections and return to power for the third consecutive term with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm.
The Assam police on Friday arrested four men including an ULFA (anti-talks faction) militant for triggering grenade explosions in Lakhimpur town of eastern Assam on July 23.
'The Kuki-Zo are aware of this rich resource in their areas and feel the Meitei push for ST status is because of this reason'.
As violence continued to rock parts of Assam in support of various demands for separate states, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday ruled out further division of his state, saying people there want to live like a joint family.
In a major breakthrough, security agencies on Monday arrested a total of 18 National Democratic Front of Bodoland- Songbijit terrorists, including the commanding officer of its 13th battalion Bikunas Narzary alias Birlangbai, from different places across Assam and a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered.
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.
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.
Restrictions under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) continued to be imposed in the clash site and surrounding areas, they said.
He said that those who have surrendered and returned to the mainstream are being rehabilitated by both the central and Assam governments and they will participate in the development journey of the state.
