The actual peace talks with the NDFB, whose original demand was for a separate homeland for Bodo tribe, was yet to get off as the outfit took a very long time to submit its charter of demands. "Now that we have submitted the charter of demands to New Delhi, it is now the turn of the government of India to show its sincerity to solve the NDFB problem and restore peace in Bodo heartland in Assam," NDFB spokesman S Sanjarang said.
The BJP won both the Rajya Sabha seats from Assam.
Four persons, including two boys, were allegedly kidnapped by suspected National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit's faction of insurgents in Assam's Baksa district, following which a massive search was launched and indefinite curfew imposed.
Altogether 78 persons were killed and 191 kidnapped by different insurgent outfits in Assam during the last two years when 20 security personnel were also killed, Minister Rockybul Hussain said on Monday in the assembly.
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.
'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.
Unidentified armed militants abducted a senior official of the National Hydro Power Corporation in Sonitpur district of north Assam while the official was coming from his work site at Tawang on Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday evening.
The NDFB has expressed its wish to consider entering into talks with the state govt for ceasefire.
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.
Two policemen were killed and as many injured when a police team was ambushed by anti-talk militants of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songjibit) faction at a remote place between Paneriguri and Makrijhara in Dhubri district on Thursday, the police said.
In a joint operation conducted by Army and Assam police, one NDFB(S) over ground worker was apprehended in Shimlabagan village in Chirang Reserve Forest area of Chirang district on Monday.
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.
The home ministry said the entire Assam, besides bordering areas of Meghalaya, have been declared 'disturbed' under the AFSPA for three months with effect from May 3.
Curfew was on Monday relaxed in violence-hit Baksa and Kokrajhar and neighbouring Chirang districts of Assam where 34 persons were killed in the mayhem unleashed by National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit militants since Thursday last.
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.
The militants accosted Prasanta Kumar, shot him, tortured him and then dumped his body at Tangla area.
A group of 5 armed militants of the anti-talk ULFA faction opened fire at some people at Bahbon village.
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.
The Assam government had received prior intelligence report of an attack by terrorists of National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit but it did not know about the target and spots, said a senior official on Saturday.
Two more bodies were found in trouble-torn districts of Assam, taking the toll in the mayhem unleashed by ultras there to 36, even as the curfew clamped in the area was relaxed on Tuesday as no fresh violence was reported from anywhere.
Noisy scenes prevailed in Assam assembly on Tuesday with opposition MLAs belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Asom Gana Parishad staging walk-out after the speaker rejected their demand for an adjournment motion to facilitate discussion on the deteriorating' law and order situation in Assam.
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.
A joint team of army and police gunned down hardcore militant Elion Daimary alias Engarlang affiliated with the Bodoland mutant.
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.
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 Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday visited the Friday attack site in Kokrajhar and said strong action would be taken against the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Sonbijit outfit and "none would be spared" for the killing of 14 people.
Assam police have arrested a local TV channel reporter for allegedly having links with the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction) group. Jaikhnong Brahma, a Kokrajhar-based reporter for Guwahati-based satellite TV channel, News Live was arrested on Tuesday evening from his residence.
The killing of 16-year-old Priya Basumatary as 'punishment' for reportedly leaking information on the movements of five National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit faction) cadres, who were gunned down by the police following a tip-off, has sent shockwaves across Assam.
The faction of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland led by Ranjan Daimary on Friday signed a Suspension of Operation agreement with the Government of India in Guwahati.
Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Issac-Munivah wanted to join the operations against NSCN-K militants.
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.
Eighty-two-year Nirmala Kumari, the mother of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation general manger, Anil Kumar Agarwal who was abducted at gunpoint by Bodo militants in Assam, on Friday made a passionate appeal to the abductors to release her son on humanitarian ground.
Hapless Adivasi villagers living in remote bordering areas of Kokrajhar and Sonitpur districts of Assam stood susceptible to marauding heavily armed National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit extremists who were desperate to show off their strength to counter sustained, intensified operation against them by the Assam police and the army of late.
The ruling alliance also has some smaller parties like Republican Party of India-Athawale, Asom Gana Parishad, Mizo National Front, National People's Party, Naga People's Front, Pattali Makkal Katchi and Bodoland People's Front, which have one seat each, totalling seven seats.