The Northeast Frontier Railway has suspended night running of train services in Lumding-Badarpur section in Assam that traverses through the insurgency ravaged North Cachar Hills where Black Widow militants have triggered fresh violence. The attacks have sparked sharp protests from Railway staff and labourers working in Lumding-Badarpur section. The workers have threatened to stop operation of trains unless they are provided adequate security cover by the state government.
Even as the Centre is trying to restore peace in insurgency-hit Dima Hasao district (erstwhile North Cachar Hill district) of Assam by engaging two factions of the Dima Halam Daogah in the peace process, another militant group is rearing its head in the troubled area.
With these dastardly killings, the death toll in continuing ethnic strife triggered by Dimasa and Naga tribe militants has risen to 55 since March 19. The violent incidents of killing and arson have been occurring despite heavy presence of security forces in the hill district.
Unidentified tribal militants killed two senior Congress leaders of North Cachar Hills district at a place called Dehangir under Umrangshu police station of the district at around 1.30 pm on Monday.
The almost two-year long lull in the insurgency-hit ethnic cauldron of Dima Hasao (erstwhile North Cachar) hill district of Assam has been vitiated once again even as the government is trying to restore peace in the area through dialogue with faction of militant Dima Halam Daogah.
After a gap of 75 days, the North East Frontier Railway has decided to resume passenger train service along the Lumding-Badarpur hill section that passes through the insurgency ravaged North Cachar Hill district after Assam government assured proper security along the route.
After a lull trouble is once again brewing in Dima Hasao (erstwhile North Cachar Hills) district of Assam with the Indigenous People's Forum (IPF), a banner organisation of non-Dimasa ethnic groups, protesting the Centre's intension to sign a memorandum of understanding with militant Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) without heeding to the IPF's demand for bifurcation of the hill district into two autonomous council instead of the existing one.
No one, including the minister who was sleeping at the time of the explosion, was injured in the explosion that made mockery of the geared up security arrangements in the hill district.
In a major boost to the morale of security forces engaged sustained counter-insurgency operation Assam, 412 militants including 22 women of the Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF) laid down arms before Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi in presence of senior police and Army officials at Diphu in Karbi Anglong hill district of Assam.
The passenger train service through the hill district has already remained suspended since last month following a series attacks on trains by the ultras. The Northeast Frontier Railway now has decided to suspend all goods train services in Lumding-Badarpur route passing through the insurgency ravaged hill district following Friday's attack on a goods train by militants that left 12 persons including security personnel injured.
The police said that two NEEPCO security guards and two children were killed when suspected Black Widow militants opened fire on the Kopili Power House of the Kopili Hydro-electricity Project of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation, located approximately 22 kilometers away from Umrangshu, at around 1 pm on Monday.
Seven Central Reserve Police Force jawans were killed on Friday in an encounter with suspected tribal militants in the North Cachar Hills district of Assam.
With the recovery of Bodo's body late on Monday night, the death toll of top Congress leaders reached three in the last 48 hours.
The continuing ethnic strife in North Cachar Hill district of Assam claimed one more life today Tuesday when suspected Naga miscreants shot dead one Dimasa tribesman and seriously injured his seven-year-old son near Dijaobra railway station on Tuesday.
Mohit Hojai, a senior political leader of Assam hill areas and chief executive officer of North Cachar Hills Autonomous District Council, and Assam Social Welfare Department Joint Director R H Khan were arrested by police on Saturday for allegedly having links with insurgents.
Continuing attacks on Hindi-speaking people in Assam, United Liberation Front of Asom and Karbi Longri National Liberation Front militants on Sunday shot dead four persons in Karbi-Anglong district.
The police informed that a group of armed militants suspected to be from Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) or Black Widow opened indiscrimate fire at the construction workers killing eight of them on the spot. The labourers were engaged by a contractor working in the multi-crore gauge conversion project of the Indian Railways in Lumding-Badarpur Hill Section under Northeast Frontier Railway.
Army troops operating against insurgents gunned down three tribal militants belonging to Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF) in an encounter on Friday in a village inside Karbi Anglong Hills district. Five other insurgents were arrested in the operation.
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.
Naga rebel group Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak Muivah has served extortion notice to the superintendent of Haflong civil hospital in North Cachar hill district of Assam creating panic among the doctors and staff as well as triggering a strong protest against the extortion bid.
Many NEEPCO employees in the hydel power project have fled following the January 14 killing of five persons, including two security men of the plant and a minor girl, by suspected Black Widow militants at the gate of the power project.
Acting on specific information, the Army personnel zeroed in on the camp of the militant group inside dense forest, about 12 kilometers away from Manja in insurgency-ravaged Karbi Anglong district. The sentry on guard, who opened fire at the Army, was shot dead in retaliatory fire. The rest of the militants fled deeper inside the forest. The Army recovered a large number of arms and ammunition besides combat dresses, ration, utensils and electronic gadgets from the camp.
According to an official source, suspected Dimasa tribe militants from Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) or Black Widow outfit swooped down on Borchenam basti inhabited by the Zeme Naga tribe and fired indiscriminately before torching the entire village.
A Central Reserve Police Force personnel was killed and 17 passengers injured, two of them critically, when suspected Black Widow or Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) militants opened fire at a passenger train at North Cachar Hill district of Assam on Friday afternoon.A senior Northeast Frontier Railway official informed that the Badarpur-Lumding Up Barak Valley Passenger was attacked by militants at Wagrendisa, before reaching the Maibong railway station.
The ten-kilometre stretch of road from Umrangshu power plant to the NEEPCO staff colony is considered highly vulnerable due to the presence of militants.
Thirty nine militants including 32 from the banned United Liberation Front of Asom surrendered before the Indian Army's on Friday at the headquarters of the 21 Mountain Division at Rangiya about 45 kilometers from Assam's capital Guwahati. Of the 39, 32 were from the 709 battalion of the ULFA while four are from Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front and three from All Adivasi National Liberation Army.
Three Northeast Frontier Railway employees were killed when suspected militants belonging to the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) group, also known as the Black Widow, hurled grenades at Harangajao railway station in the North Cachar Hills district of Assam late on Monday night. Senior army officials and police officials rushed to the spot after the strike and a combing operation has been launched in the area.
Official sources in Guwahati informed that the Central team would be led by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar who would be accompanied by Union Special Secretary Home M L Kumawat and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh.
In severe blow to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom, 31 militants, mostly from the ranks of the proscribed insurgent group surrendered before the army on Monday.
With terrorist groups being in truce mode insurgency is on the wane in picturesque ethnic mosaic called Dima Hasao (erstwhile North Cachar Hills) district in Assam.
The militant group, also known as the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel faction), had for the last couple of years held almost every development project in the picturesque North Cachar Hills district of Assam at ransom.
The National Investigation Agency has stumbled upon international links while probing terror-related cases involving Black Widow, an Assam-based militant outfit.The anti-terror federal agency, probing the first case after its constitution in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack, has so far arrested ten people, mostly arms dealers and linkmen. Seven of them have been arrested in Guwahati and North Cachar Hills, two in Kolkata and one in Mizoram, revealed a top NIA official.
At least 12 persons, including eight children and two women, were gunned down by unidentified tribal militants and 15 houses were torched at Michidui village inhabited by Zeme Naga tribe under Haflong police station as fresh violence rocked the insurgency-hit North Cachar Hill district of Assam on Tuesday.
Two old couples were killed by suspected tribal militants belonging to the Black Widow outfit in two seprate incidents in remote parts of North Cachar Hill district of Assam in the wee hours on Friday.
Four officials of an oil exploration company, who were abducted by suspected tribal militants on Thursday afternoon at Langting in North Cachar Hill district of Assam, remain untraced though the police and the army have launched a search operation for them from Friday morning.The police suspect that militants of the Dima Halam Daogah group or the Black Widow might be responsible for the abductions.
The Assam government has decided to institute a probe into the alleged diversion of development funds by the the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Autonomous State Demand Committee combine in the North Cachar Hills autonomous district council to the Black Widow militants' coffers.
The Dima Halam Daogah, also known as 'Black Widow', on Monday declared a unilateral ceasefire for a more than a month in Assam's North Cachar Hills and asked the railways to resume its suspended train services and construction work.
