Over seven months of violence severely hit businesses, schools, colleges and other institutions, besides disrupting transportation and communication networks. It also affected the agrarian sector, considered the mainstay of the state economy.
At least 14 Taliban militants were killed in twin US drone attacks in Pakistan's restive northwest on Wednesday while five soldiers and as many militants died in violence, including in a suicide bombing at an army barrack in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The house of Manipur PWD Minister Konthoujam Govindas in Bishnupur district was vandalised on Wednesday by a group of people claiming that the government in the strife-torn state is not doing enough to protect locals from militants belonging to another community, officials said.
Normalcy is returning to the violence-affected districts of Baksa and Kokrajhar under Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts Council areas in Assam. The state government claims that there has been no incident in the last 48 hours as the security apparatus along with army is working relentlessly to restore peace.
"Dialogue is the only solution to the ongoing crisis in Manipur," Shah said.
Bangladesh is in turmoil, which is not good news for India, which shares a porous 4000 km border with it. There is a danger of fundamentalism growing there, and India has to move in to reset its ties with the new dispensation before China and Pakistan make capital out of it, alerts Ramesh Menon.
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.
Senior IPS officer Rajiv Singh, belonging to the neighbouring Tripura cadre, was on Thursday appointed as the new director general of police of Manipur.
The Manipur police said all personnel of the force from top to bottom are united and any attack on anyone and use of social media to target any officer or unit will be taken seriously and stringent action will be taken.
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 regular morning cup of tea proved fatal for two unarmed policemen who were gunned down by a terrorist in broad daylight in an upmarket Srinagar area, an incident witnessed by several people and captured on CCTV cameras, police said on Friday.
The encounter took place when the troops of Rashtriya Rifles and Special Operations Group of J&K Police launched a joint cordon and search operation at Dhari Gote Urarbagi in Desa forest belt, some 55 km from Doda town, late Monday evening, the officials said.
Over 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded on Monday in 49 constituencies in six states and two Union territories in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, with Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir recording its highest-ever voting percentage.
The committee's convenor L Binod had earlier said that the strike is not to add to the hardships of the people, but to 'pressure the government.'
Three persons, including a United Liberation Front of Asom militant, were killed and six others injured in three separate incidents of violence in Assam on Thursday, on the eve of Republic Day.
A total of 33 people, including 23 pro-Taliban militants, were killed in two separate incidents of violence in the restive Khyber tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Friday, officials said.
"The response to the rehabilitation policy (for militants in PoK) has been better than expected. We have received 600 to 700 applications," Omar told media persons in Srinagar.
'We are not secessionists, we want to coexist with our countrymen but not on the terms that will strip us off our dignity and a right to peaceful existence.'
"Some 300-400 militants are in launching pads, ready to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir to keep the pot of militancy boiling and boost the sagging moral of the militants here," a source told PTI. The militants are in 18 launching pads mostly in Goi, Kotli, Nikial, Bindi, Samani, Dhallupar, Hijira, Sensakudiala Bhimber and Mamana along the LoC, they said. There are 26 militant training camps, including 21 along LoC and four along the international border, they said.
The ITLF said Mizoram has welcomed more than 40,000 refugees from Myanmar and displaced people from Manipur, and it is still the most peaceful state in India.
Pakistani authorities will seal part of the country's border with Afghanistan during December 13-20 as part of special security measures for the Islamic holy month of Muharram, which has often been marred by sectarian and militant violence.
With former prime minister Imran Khan in jail, Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is tipped to emerge as the single largest party in the elections.
Low voter turnout marked the general elections in Afghanistan on Thursday, as the war-ravaged country voted to choose their next president for the second time since 2001.
Two Border Security Force personnel were killed while four others injured when militants opened fired at their vehicle just outside the Awantipora IAF airfield in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday. Officials said a squad of BSF personnel was changing guard at the airfield in Pulwama, 33 kms from Srinagar, on Saturday afternoon when a group of militants opened fire at them from automatic weapons.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Margaret Sekaggya met members of the local civil society and various human rights activists in Srinagar on Wednesday evening. Margaret arrived in Srinagar on Wednesday afternoon on a two day visit to Kashmir to 'asses the human rights situation in the Valley'. This is the first visit of the UN special rapporteur on human rights to Kashmir Valley after the outbreak of militant violence in 1990.
Pakistani security forces claimed to have killed 64 Taliban militants in an intensified operation in various parts of the troubled Bajaur tribal region near Afghan border, as the locals continued shifting to safer places. However, independent sources said 11 militants were killed and eight others injured on Sunday in the aerial blitz at Loisam, Rashkai, Tang Khatta and other areas of the violence-hit agency, local daily The News reported on Monday.
An unidentified ULFA militant died while the bomb he was carrying in his bicycle exploded on the road. No one else was injured in the incident.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said the use of violence, as an instrument of protest was the biggest challenge before the country.
'The more harder India pushes its nationalism on to its population, the further away we send Kashmiris.' 'We should understand that the unrest in that state cannot be solved by demonetisation. There are much deeper causes,' says Aakar Patel.
"Keeping in view the sensitivity of the use of kinetic force against a large irate mob and envisaged casualties due to such action, the officer on the ground made a considerate decision to hand over all 12 cadres to the local leader. Own columns lifted the cordon and left the area with weapons and war-like stores, recovered from insurgents," it read.
The blockade of Facebook and WhatsApp has been imposed from mid-night following violent incidents between the minority Muslim and majority Sinhalese communities, officials said.
At least 38 people, including a former parliamentarian, were killed and nearly 50 others injured in a suicide attack on a mosque and two bombings across northwest Pakistan on Monday, marking a spurt in militant violence after a relative lull over the past few weeks.
Curfew was on Monday relaxed in violence-hit Baksa and Kokrajhar and neighbouring Chirang districts of Assam where 34 persons were killed in the mayhem unleashed by National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit militants since Thursday last.
A suicide attacker detonated his explosive vest near the gate of a mosque in Nakai area of Tirah Valley, located close to the border with Afghanistan, as the Lashkar-e-Islam militants were leaving after offering Friday prayers, officials of the local political administration told the media.
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.
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.
Indian police arrested seven students in the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) region under anti-terror laws for allegedly celebrating Australia's victory over India in the men's Cricket World Cup final earlier this month, police said on Tuesday.
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Pakistan authorities have arrested more than 1,800 suspected extremists as crackdown on militants intensified in the wake of the Peshawar school massacre that left 150 people dead, officials said on Thursday.
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.
No one was injured in the attack, said officials.
