At least eight personnel of the Border Security Force were killed and eight others injured in an ambush by the anti-talks faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland in Assam's Kokrajhar District on Monday evening. Militants of the Ranjan Daimary-led faction used automatic weapons to ambush the BSF convoy in remote Ultapani Forest area near the India-Bhutan border. The patrol was on its way from Bangladoba in Chirang District of Assam to Ultapani in Kokrajhar.
Six volunteers of the World Wide Fund for Nature were abducted by unidentified militants from a thickly-forested area close to India-Bhutan border in Assam on Sunday evening.The volunteers were working in a tiger monitoring project in Ripu-Chirang Wildlife Sanctuary near Bhutan border to the west of Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam. They were abducted from a place called Ultapani.The security forces have launched a search operation to trace the abducted volunteers.
Four more persons were gunned down in Assam by NDFB militants on Tuesday while a man succumbed to his injuries, taking the toll in the overnight violence to 23, as the rebels warned of more killings.
Over 30 persons belonging to the Adivasi community were killed by the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction) or NDFB-S militants at four places in Assam ob Tuesday evening.
Paresh Barua, the fugitive 'commander-in-chief' of the anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam, has been reportedly spotted by Indian security agencies at various locations in China.
The death toll on Wednesday climbed to 68 in the series of attacks by suspected Bodo militants belonging to the National Democratic Front of Bodoland faction in Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts of Assam while the Centre was rushing additional forces to the state.
It is possible that the December clashes in Assam merely exploited an issue simmering for decades. The motivation, however, was something else, says Aditi Phadnis