Assam police sounds least worried over the fresh threat issued by the fugitive commander in chief of the banned United Liberation Front of Assam Paresh Baruah to carry out attacks on state police personnel as well as men from all other Indian security forces operating against the outfit in Assam.
The government has initiated a series of steps to check the spread of the Islamic in India, including the launch of a counter-radicalisation and de-radicalisation strategy.
Official sources said Assam Rifles personnel acting on a tip off raided Sora area in Thoubal and gunned down the militants.
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.
Kasparov, who got 379 of 498 votes at a national congress of the Other Russia coalition, has been instrumental in uniting liberals, leftists and nationalists who are opposed to President Vladimir Putin.
In a statement e-mailed to the media by the central publicity wing of the ULFA, the outfit has accused its breakaway faction of hatching a conspiracy against the ULFA leadership in the name of mobilizing public opinion for unconditional talks between the ULFA top-brass and the Indian government.
Upping the ante, United Liberation Front of Asom 'commander-in-chief' Paresh Barua shot off a 'last message' to the centre, asking it to take a referendum in Assam if it could not discuss the sovereignty issue with the group.
Notwithstanding the latest reverses it has suffered at the hands of security forces and because of the split that has appeared in its ranks with two crack companies declaring unilateral ceasefire, the ULFA still poses the greatest challenge to security forces in Assam.
The handful of United Liberation Front of Asom supporters, who raised slogans in support of Arabindo Rajkhowa when he was produced in court, and the anger of the outfit's chairman at being handcuffed, cuts little ice with the common people of the state.
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.
As the banned outfit is showing belligerence by striking with vengeance in the wake of 'A' and 'C' companies of its 28th battalion declaring unilateral truce with government India forces, security agencies apprehend retaliatory attacks on the vulnerable Hindi-speaking population in eastern Assam areas. Patrolling has been intensified in eastern Assam areas that have sizeable population of Hindi-speaking people.
The United Liberation Front of Assam on Monday claimed it was not involved in Sunday's twin blasts in Nalbari, which claimed seven lives, and said it was carried out by forces that 'want to derail the peace process'. In a statement e-mailed to the media, ULFA chief Arabinda Rajkhowa said, "We condemn Sunday's blast in which innocent indigenous Assamese people were killed and such an act can be carried out only by enemies of Assam. Over 54 people were also injured in the blast
The IEDs exploded adjacent to a police reserve and about 150 mt away from the parade ground where the celebration was on at 8 am, police said.
Even as the Indian Army wants the imposition of tougher laws in support of the counter-insurgency operations against the banned United Liberation Front of Asom, the insurgent group has termed the move, 'a reflection of the failure of the Army' in demoralising and neutralising ULFA members despite its prolonged operations in Assam.
India has asked Bangladesh to destroy 172 camps run by northeastern insurgents in its territory and to apprehend 103 militants including top United Liberation Front of Asom leaders based in that country, officials said on Thursday.
Prabal Neog, commander of the 28th battalion of the outfit, had issued orders to lower rank cadres to carry out subversions on I-Day, police said.
In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, Bangladesh's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hasan Mahmud told the channel that the new government in Dhaka has mutually agreed with India to handover United Liberation Front of Asom's chief Anup Chetia, who has been in Bangladeshi Jail since 1996.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has asked the Centre to seal off the porous Indo-Bangla border to prevent infiltration by militants from Bangladesh. More than 100 camps of North East-based militants, including the United Liberation Front of Asom, National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Issac-Muivah) among others are operating within Bangladesh. India shares a 4,095 km-long border with Bangladesh, including the longest in West Bengal at 2,216-km, part of which is porous.
The slain militants were identified as Palash Rajbongshi and Bhaskar Baruah, two corporals of 28 Battalion of the ULFA.
ULFA has said it will exercise restraint in its operations.
Apart from the ULFA, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, which is now in truce with the government of India, also demands sovereignty for Bodo tribe living in Assam.
In an irony of sorts, army personnel donated blood to save an injured woman cadre of United Liberation Front of Asom captured during an encounter in the Garo Hills of Meghalaya. The woman militant, Tezimalla Rabha, was injured in the thigh during an encounter with personnel of the army's Red Horns Division in East Garo Hills on December 22, 2008 during which two other ULFA militants were shot dead, an army official said on Thursday.
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.
A bomb exploded injuring three persons in the Birubari area of Guwahati on Thursday. Official sources said the Improvised Explosive Devise kept in a Gauhati Municipal Corporation dustbin went off at around 1530 hrs.
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.
Raising anti-ULFA slogans, the protestors went through several busy streets.
The proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom has been triggering blasts in Assam with uniform regularity setting off seven explosive devices, including five in Guwahati this month, killing nine persons and injuring 100 others.
Nitish Kumar conveyed his concern over the attacks to Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday night, sources in his secretariat said on Thursday.
"We are not satisfied with the sluggish pace of investigation by the CBI into abduction and killing of my father. We have serious doubts that some influential quarters may try to derail the investigation. So, we have decided to move the high court requesting it to review the progress of investigation," said Praveen Kumar Gautom, son of the slain FCI official.
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.
Two suspected United Liberation Front of Asom militants were killed in an encounter with the army in north Assam's Lakhimpur district while two other persons were injured in a blast that rocked a small western Assam town in two separate incidents violence in the state on Saturday. Security sources informed that two suspected ULFA militants were killed following a gunbattle with a team of personnel from the 2nd Bihar Regiment.
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The injured FCI employees were identified as Purna Sharma and Ratneswar Rabha who were immediately rushed to Guwahati Medical College Hospital. It is the biggest FCI warehouse in the region with a capacity of 23000 MT.
In a statement e-mailed to the media, ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa said the people of Assam should be prepared to carry out more difficult agitational programmes in future if the 'Indian occupational force' continued with its repressive design to annihilate people's effort for a peaceful political solution to the conflict.
Seething with anger the banned United Liberation Front of Asom has called for a 12-hour dawn to dusk Assam bandh on Tuesday for demanding the release of human rights activist and chief convenor of the ULFA-constituted People's Consultative Group Lachit Bardoloi.
The arrests were made on the basis of confessions made by arrested ULFA cadre Manoj Tamuly, who was allegedly trained by an Inter Services Intelligence operative.
The bandh passed off peacefully with no report of untoward incidents from any parts of the state even as state government took elaborate measures to tighten vigil during the bandh period.
In a swift joint operation, personnel from the Army and Meghalaya police nabbed six militants belonging to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in the state on Wednesday afternoon.