Under attack from the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (anti-talks) faction over its failure to punish culprits behind the secret killings of innocent family members of ULFA members that took place in Assam between 1996 and 2001, the Congress government in Assam on Tuesday blamed former Assam chief minister and Asom Gana Parishad leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for allowing the gruesome episode to take place in the state.
The seriously injured Congress leader was rushed to Guwahati Medical College Hospital where he was declared dead.
A large number of women from Malom in Imphal West district blocked the road to the airport in protest against the killing of the policemen in Moreh.
The timed bomb was planted on a bicycle parked in front of a tea stall owned by one Rafique Ahmed who was killed in the blast along with seven-year-old Safique Ali.
Altogether 12 insurgent groups from the Northeast including the coordination committee comprising seven militant outfits groups in Manipur have called for a general shut-down on January 26 to bar people of the region from taking part in Republic Day celebrations.
After another round of talks with the Central government today, the faction of the militant United Liberation Front of Assam led by its 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa hopes for an early solution to the problem as the 'talks are progressing along the right course'.
They set afire a 5000KL petrol tank, blasted a gas pipeline, attacked a police post and a commando barrack and fired at a Bihari settlement, killing two persons.
Noted novelist Jnanpith Dr Mamoni Raisom Goswami (Indira Goswami) on Friday vowed to continue with her efforts to bring the banned militant group to negotiations.
After successfully mobilising public opinion to favour the release of senior leaders of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom to facilitate talks with the government, the Sanmilita Jatiya Abhibartan, a forum of leading citizens and civil society organisations, has now started preparing the charter of demands that the outfit can present ahead of the peace talks.
Six banned militants groups operating in the north-east India have issued a joint statement calling for the 'boycott of Republic Day celebrations and a general strike on 26 January in the region. The outfits which have called for the strike included United Liberation Front of Assam, National Democratic Front of Boroland, Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, Manipur People's Liberation Front, National Liberation Front of Twipra and Tripura People's Democratic Front.
Mudslinging and verbal attacks will definitely surge once the poll dates are announced, but as with any state, there are some crucial issues which will play a significant role in influencing voters in Assam too, says Devanik Saha.
The Asom Gana Parishad, the state's main Opposition party, has raised a demand to initiate immediate peace talks with the banned United Liberation Front of Asom. Political observers, however, view the renewed call by the AGP for peace talks as an attempt to placate ULFA before the forthcoming panchayat election in Assam.
The banned outfit ambushed an army vehicle with a powerful bomb near remote Asomiyagaon village.
Security measures have been tightened as the anti-talks faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam has called for Assam bandh on April 20 in protest against the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Guwahati to kick-start the platinum jubilee celebrations of Assam assembly.
The retreating Pakistani troops were heading towards Dacca and they had to be stopped at all costs. The Eastern Army Commander, in his orders to General Sagat Singh, had reiterated that he did not want the troops of 4 Corps to cross the Meghna river. But General Sagat had other plans to threaten Dacca and ensure that the pressure would make the Pakistani commanders capitulate. This is where the IAF helicopters came in.
The fasttrack court of Additional Session Judge II on Friday granted bail to a militant belonging to United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), Phatik Hatimota, an accused in the murder of high-profile social worker Sanjoy Ghose in 1997 in Assam.
The anti-talks faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam on Monday flayed Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for expressing its inability to bring 'culprits' behind the infamous 'secret killings' in Assam during the last AGP regime (1996-2001) to book for 'lack of evidence'.
The Assam government is not considering the appeal from some civil society pro-peace groups to grant general amnesty to the members and the leaders of the pro-talks faction of United Liberation Front of Assam.
While Himanta Biswa Sarma scotched rumours that he would be the king this time, political sources in Guwahati maintained that he, and not Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had a bigger say in choosing candidates, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
The Assam police killed a hardcore militant of the banned United Liberation Front of Assam and arrested another militant in two separate operations in eastern Assam on Tuesday.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam, led by Arabinda Rajkhowa, has set the tone for dialogue to resolve the over 31-year-old vexed insurgency problem in the state by dropping its main demand for 'sovereignty'.
Suspected United Liberation Front of Asominsurgents lobbed a grenade at Assam Rifles personnel escorting a school bus in upper Assam's Sibsagar district on Tuesday morning. All school children and security personnel are safe, police said.
Sources within the security forces said the unit had deployed different teams for surveillance and ambush after receiving the inputs about the movement of terrorists in the Tiru area of the Mon district of Nagaland.
Sarma said his government had prepared a dossier on PFI and would be taking action against the outfit in the state.
In an apparent attempt to placate his masters on foreign soils, Paresh Barua, the commander-in-chief of the anti-talks faction of the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam, on Monday called upon the people of Assam and other parts of the region to resist 'colonial' Indian government's bid to set up BrahMos and Akash missiles on the soils of Nagaland and Assam as it would make them target of 'Red China' that claims territory of 'so called' Arunachal Pradesh.
Assam CM Gogoi asks ULFA to give up arms and participate in democratic processes.
The Indian Railway's attempt to close down an old Assamese medium school run by it in Assam has not gone down well with the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam.
A senior police official informed that the police came to know about the explosive materials following the arrest of an ULFA militant in Guwahati on Thursday.
The injured have been air evacuated to Mantripukhri and search operations are in progress, the Army's SpearCorps headquartered in Dimapur said on Twitter.
A railway engine driver abducted by a little-known tribal outfit called United Democratic Liberation Army, from a remote area in Hailakandi district in southern Assam last month, was released unharmed by the abductors on Friday much to the relief of the Railway authorities and his family members.
The United Liberation Front of Assam's anti-talk faction on Wednesday 'removed' Arabinda Rajkhowa as its chairman and 'appointed' acting chairman Abhijit Asom as its new leader.
An oil pipeline at Makum in upper Assam's Tinsukia district was on Tuesday damaged in an explosion, for which the United Liberation Front of Asom claimed responsibility. The explosion in the pipeline of the IOC-Assam Oil Division created a 4-ft crater in Pachim Mamarani area, AOD sources said, adding that there was no report of any casualty.
It said that rebels of the Manipur People's Army, the armed wing of the UNLF, came from across the Myanmar border and a gunfight took place at Gamphazol village.
A joint team of the army and police gunned down seven tribal militants on Friday morning in an encounter inside a dense forest along the Assam-Mizoram border in Karimganj district of South Assam.
Even as public protests are rife against outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom in eastern Assam district of Tinsukia over deaths of three innocent children in a freak grenade explosion on the afternoon of January 9, in a village near the oil refinery town of Digboi, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday directed the state police chief to gear up vigil and beef security measures.
Two powerful Chinese grenades were recovered from a Guwahati-bound bus and a suspected United Liberation Front of Asom terrorist arrested from Assam's Darrang district on Wednesday.
The anti-talks faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam on Sunday made the 'last' call to its 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa, to come back to the fold of the parent outfit (unbound ULFA) and resume the responsibility of the 'chairman' by giving up the 'unrealistic' path of dialogue with the government to protect the identify of Assamese people without attaining 'sovereignty' for Assam.
On the Islamic State-style video sent by the ULFA-I to TV news channels, the DGP said it was the first time that such a video has been received.
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