Four hardcore militants from the 709 battalion of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) surrendered on Thursday before the Army at an Indian Army base at Kamalpur in Kamrup district, about 35 kilometers from Guwahati.
The ULFA had called upon sportsmen to stay away from the Games for their own safety while opposing holding of the event in the state without a final solution to "Assam-India" political conflict.
Three militants belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom were killed and one militant was arrested in two separate incidents of gun-battle, between the militants and joint teams of the Army and police, near the Assam-Arunachal border on Saturday.Security sources informed that two ULFA militants were killed in an encounter with security forces at Khamongaon under Kakotibari police station in Charaideo sub-division of Sivasagar district.
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.
Five militants were killed in an encounter with army in lower Assam's Sonitpur district in the wee hours on Monday. Troops of the Red Horns division exchanged fire with the insurgents belonging to National Democratic Front of Bodoland and the Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam late on Sunday night at Akabasti, 8 km southeast of Lokra, army sources said.
Police informed that the grenade went off amid a 500-strong crowd that was celebrating the spring festival of the Mising tribe inside the premises of a local cultural centre. In a statement issued on Sunday, ULFA denied its hands behind the blast and stated that it was the handiwork of 'forces' that were out to defame the image of the ULFA and trigger conflicts between different groups of people in the state.
The arrest of top United Liberation Front of Assam leaders and their eagerness for talks raised hopes of a negotiated settlement to the decades-long insurgency problem in Assam, which witnessed a relatively peaceful year.
Hours after the release of United Liberation Front of Asom Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa from Guwhati's Central Jail, the Assam government clarified that the ban the outfit will stay despite the outfit's leadership talking truce.
A huge cache of arms and ammunition belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom were recovered by the police from Sadiya while the Army shot dead two militants in Bongaigaon district on Saturday.During a raid conducted on the basis of specific information, the Assam police stumbled upon a cache of 27 AK 56 assault rifles, 117 magazines and 400 ammunition hidden in the granary of a village household at Kukurmara village in Sadiya sub-division of Tinsukia district.
The centre's owner, Rameswar Bahiti, a Hindi-speaking person, was targeted by the ULFA.
At least 20 key members of the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), along with their family members, have surrendered, giving a boost to the ongoing negotiations with the militant outfit.
More than a week after serial blasts rocked Assam, investigators have found clues that the United Liberation Front of Assom and the NDFB carried out the deadly explosions with the help of Bangladesh-based HuJI's expertise.Home Ministry sources said the investigators have found enough evidence that the banned ULFA had carried out the October 30 serial blasts with the help of dominant Bodo militant group NDFB.
The banned ULFA was formed on April 7, 1979, in Sivasagar district of Upper Assam.
A source in the chief minister's office informed that the judicial inquiry would continue simultaneously along with the investigation that was being carried out by the Additional Chief Secretary of the State Alok Party. Gogoi has made it clear that no official would be spared if found guilty of intentional killing of 'any innocent person' in the name of counter-insurgency operation in general.
The anti-talks faction of the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam on Friday criticised former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai for the comments he had made in a seminar in Guwahati a few days back and stated that the bigwigs in the bureaucracy in the 'colonial' Indian government should better do away with the habit of belittling the ULFA, the people of Assam and their 'revolution'.
Gogoi is understood to have thanked the Centre for the prompt response to the recent attacks.
Nine more persons were killed on Sunday in Assam as violence continued despite the state government's claim to have augmented the deployment of security personnel.
Credited with bringing insurgent group United Liberation Front of Asom to the negotiating table and hauling Assam back from the brink of bankruptcy, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has combined administrative and political acumen with his simple demeanour to help Congress retain power for a record consecutive third term.
Four militants of the banned outfit United Liberation Front of Assom were killed in a joint operation by the Army and the police in Sibsagar district of Assam early on Saturday morning. Acting on a tip-off about the ultras having put up in a house at Naphuk Naharani village after threatening the inmates at gunpoint, the security forces cordoned off the area at around 2.30 am. The militants fired at the security forces, and they retaliated by killing four of them.
The banned ULFA, which had called for a general strike on Independence Day, triggered four explosions in Dhubri and Bongaigaon districts of Assam on Wednesday.
According to sources the army was all set to conduct operation in the disturbed 'ULFA infested' districts of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar and Jorhat.
The army and police have rushed to the spot and have launched operations in the other parts of the state.
The slain militants were identified as Palash Rajbongshi and Bhaskar Baruah, two corporals of 28 Battalion of the ULFA.
Suspected United Liberation Front of Asom militants detonated an improvised explosive device targeting a Central Reserve Police Force team in Assam's Goalpara district in the wee hours of Thursday but none was hurt.
Six persons including three policemen were injured when suspected militants belonging to the anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam lobbed grenades inside the campus of Mangaldoi police station in Assam on Thursday evening.
At least 18 militants of three proscribed groups, including 13 from the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), laid down arms and surrendered at the base on the 2 Mountain Division of Indian Army at Dinjan in eastern Assam's Tinsukia district on Monday. The militants surrendered before GOC of 2 Mountain Division, Major General Jatinder Singh and Deputy Commissioner of the Tinsukia district, Dr K K Dwivedi besides other senior Army and district officials.
The minister said for eligible persons belonging to the violence-hit families seeking self-employment, the government would facilitate loans through banks.
The incident has come just when there were reports of cooling off of violent clashes between local Assamese and Bihari migrants.
The explosion took place even as intelligence reports indicated the militant group's plans to carry out subversion in the state in the run up to its 'Army Day' on Friday.
The security sources said the surrendered militant, Pranab Moran, who used to run a grocery shop in the locality, was preparing to sleep inside his shop when two suspected ULFA militants came calling.
33 persons were injured in three incidents of bomb blasts allegedly triggererd by the United Liberation Front of Asom in Assam on Sunday.
Assam has been put on red alert as gun-toting United Liberation Front of Asom militants were on a rampage in three Upper Assam districts where they have mowed down 48 people since Friday, including 28 on Saturday.
The ULFA chairman filed the bail petitions following release of five senior ULFA leaders on bail from jail in the last six months that has raised hopes for beginning of a dialogue with the outfit.
"The ULFA has crossed all limits by killing innocent civilians in the state. It is time the people stand up together and voice their rejection of the group and its demand for a sovereign state," APW secretary Abhijit Sharma said.
The exlosions were carried out by ULFA militants.
Altogether 58 militants, including 52 from the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and six from two Naga rebels groups, gave up arms before the Army in two separate surrender ceremonies on Tuesday.
The ULFA has always been seen as being insensitive to children. Two years ago, they bombed to death 16 students at Dhemaji in an Independence Day programme.
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