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.
Suspected militants from anti-talks faction of Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) or Black Widows gunned down four workers of a cement plant owned by Vinay Cement at Umranghsu in North Cachar Hill district of Assam on Tuesday.
Official sources said that suspected Black Widow militants abducted five bamboo cutters from a bamboo suppliers' firm under the Umrangshu police station on Thursday. The bodies of four of the abducted people were found today while the fifth person was found in a critically injured condition.
The surrender reflects the success of renewed intensive operations by the security forces, claimed the Army.
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.
The arrests were made on a tip-off that some anti-social elements used these exchanges to divert calls originating from Dubai, Pakistan, UAE, Bangladesh and several other foreign countries to destinations in rest of the country.
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.
The tribal Black Widow militant group, which has been running riot in the North Cachar Hill district of Assam, has offered a unilateral truce with the government. However, the state government has preferred to adopt a wait and watch policy before responding to the truce offer. Security sources feel that the offer of unilateral truce from the Black Widow was a positive development towards finding a solution to the violent atmosphere prevailing in the hill district.
The attack, carried out by suspected Black Widow militants, targeted a police picket stationed at a construction work site. Construction companies are frequently targeted by the insurgents for extortions.
Police sources in N C Hills said the DHD (J) ultras, also known as 'Black Widow', arrived at the saw mills and fired indiscriminately killing eight on the spot.
The successive arrests of its two top leaders within a week of each other have served a major blow to the insurgent group Black Widow. The group has been terrorising Assam's North Cachar Hill district. The Police arrested the outfit's No. 2 Joy Kishore Tharasen alias Daku Singh two days ago. The Black Widow's No. 3 leader Action Dimasa, along with seven militants, was arrested earlier this week. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered in both cases.
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.
About the deaths of so many civilians in a goods train mishap, a railway spokesman said that due to poor roads, tribal people of the North Cachar Hill usually jump on to goods trains to reach the south.
Suspected militants hurled the grenade and escaped using the crowd at the station as cover.
The ultras will be provided six-month vocational training in trade of their choice at the Army-run rehabilitation and training centre (RTC) at Tamulpur. They will also be provided with Rs 1.5 lakh each and the amount will be paid to three-year fixed deposit accounts to be opened against the name of each of the surrendered militants.
G C Langthasa's son was gunned down by Hmar militants on Monday.
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:
Akshay Kumar and Urmila Matondkar expressed shock over a May 4 video of two women being paraded naked in strife-hit Manipur and demanded punishment for the perpetrators of the 'horrifying' incident.
The Centre has expressed concern at re-emergence of leprosy cases in certain pockets of the eighth North Eastern states which have reported 747 new cases.
Assam CM said the police case filed against two senior Mizoram government officials - Deputy Commissioner of Kolasib district and Sub-divisional Police Officer of Vairengte - will be withdrawn.
Six days after a violent clash between police forces of Assam and Mizoram claimed seven lives and injured over 50 people, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said such incidents along the inter-state border are 'unacceptable' to people of both the states and advocated a resolution through talks.
Assam's longest border dispute is with Nagaland, which began since the creation of the state in 1963.
Close to 2,000 passengers are stranded at the premises of the airport, the terminal building of which can handle only 750 passengers -- 250 for arrival and 500 for departure -- at a time.
During the three-day mourning period, the national flag will fly at half-mast and there will be no public entertainment, a notification issued by the Assam government said.
The Seismological department said that the quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and lasted for about two minutes.
AFSPA can be safely lifted from almost 90 per cent of Nagaland, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Sarma, however, said that police cases filed against six Mizoram government officials will continue to be probed for their alleged role in the deadly gun battle along the inter-state border at Lailapur in Cachar district.
Noting that the border disputes go back to the British era, Sarma in an said Assam has been holding talks with other states too and faulted the previous Congress governments for not clearly demarcating boundaries while carving out new states.
Two senior government functionaries said the task has been given to the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC), a joint initiative of the Department of Space (DoS) and the North Eastern Council (NEC).
His appeal came when certain organisations of the neighbouring Barak Valley region of Assam observed a 12-hour bandh on Wednesday and have been staging an economic blockade on the National Highway-306 that connects Mizoram with the rest of the country since July 26, disrupting transportation of goods to the state.
The situation along the Mizoram-Assam border has been on the boil since June-end when Assam Police allegedly took control over an area known as 'Aitlang hnar' about 5 km from Vairengte, accusing the neighbouring state of encroaching on its territory.
Of the deceased, five were from West Bengal, two each from Jharkhand and neighbouring Assam and one from Mizoram's Lunglei district, the official said.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, was completely withdrawn in Meghalaya in 2018, Tripura in 2015 and Mizoram in the 1980s.
While Mizoram alleged that personnel of the Assam police fired on its civilians injuring one, the neighbouring state claimed that the men in uniform only returned the fire after miscreants from the other side of the border sprayed bullets on them.
The apex court ordered adequate steps to be taken for protecting places of worship.
