Insurgency / Assam

GUWAHATI, June 18 – The State Government is yet to establish any direct contact with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) for negotiation. However, the banned outfit has expressed its desire for a negotiated settlement of the issues it has raised, said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi here today. On the preconditions slapped by the militant outfit for talks, the Chief Minister, who was addressing the mediapersons at the Janata Bhawan auditorium this noon, said, “Let us establish the contacts first. We will then think of the conditions slapped by the ULFA”.

When he was confronted with the...

Dibrugarh, June 17: The Ulfa extortion machinery is up and running after the Bhutan-induced stupor, and the tea industry is again the prime target. The general-officer-commanding of the army’s 4 Corps today said the Ulfa was desperate for money to reorganise its units, some of which took a severe beating during the military operation by Bhutan.

“The militant group is desperate to resurrect itself in the region. We are in touch with the big tea companies and other likely targets of its extortion campaign,” Lt Gen. Anup S. Jamwal told the media at the army’s Dinjan base in Dibrugarh district....

Guwahati, June 16: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today welcomed filmmaker Jahnu Barua’s offer to broker peace talks with the banned Ulfa. He told the media at his official residence that the Congress government would support “any effort by anyone” to solve the problem of militancy. “It is good that somebody has come forward to help. We welcome this. We have no problem with anyone trying to broker peace if the Ulfa agrees to it.”

Barua, whose award-winning film Halodhiya Choraye Baodhan Khai made him a household name, made the offer while releasing a signed appeal yesterday for peace talks...

GUWAHATI, June 16 – The proscribed ULFA has shown the “first signs” of coming to the negotiation table to solve the vexed insurgency problem in the State, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said here today, reports PTI. “Somebody (ULFA leader) has come forward. It is a good sign and we are hopeful of a new beginning,” Gogoi told PTI in an interview.

“We have been always asking them (ULFA) to come for talks and it is a very positive sign that they have responded,” Gogoi said. Without identifying the ULFA leader who he said has “come forward for talks,” the Chief Minister said, “at least let there be...

KOKRAJHAR, June 15 – The State Government has released Rs ten crore for rehabilitation of 10,000 families of relief camp inmates who are languishing at different relief camps in Dhubri, Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar due to the Bodo-Adivasi ethnic violence in 1996-1998, informed Binkanta Soren, vice-chairman of Adivasi Cobra Military of Assam here recently.

Soren further informed that the State Government also sanctioned 15 days ration to the camp inmates which will be distributed within this month along with rehabilitation grants. After proper rehabilitation of these 10,000 families, the Central...

NEW DELHI, June 14– ULFA has in the past two months embarked on a massive recruitment drive in Assam, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has cautioned the State Government, highly placed sources told this newspaper. ULFA’s growing belligerence in Assam after Bhutan crackdown has not gone unnoticed at the centre and the State Government has been kept posted of the latest developments.

Extortion notices on the tea companies, served recently, is but the latest in a series of the disturbing news that suggests that the ULFA after suffering massive set backs in Bhutan has started regrouping and...

Nagaon/Guwahati, June 13: Jolted by reports suggesting that the abductors of minister G.C. Langthasa’s youngest son could do something drastic under pressure, Dispur has asked security forces to be “restrained” while conducting operations to rescue hostages. A source said the government’s directive was issued in the wake of an intelligence warning that the Ulfa, which abducted Nirmalendu Langthasa, was under “tremendous pressure” because of sustained operations by security forces and could react violently if pushed to the wall.

“It is a very delicate situation for the government. It cannot...

GUWAHATI, June 11: The growing proximity between the outlawed ULFA and the NSCN (IM) has sent disturbing signals to the Assam Government. At a press conference here today, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that the recent understanding reached between the NSCN (IM) and the ULFA may come as a serious blow to the law and order situation in the State and, therefore, has become a cause for worry.

" This latest development is very disturbing," the Chief Minister said. He said that the Centre has already been apprised of the matter. This latest rapprochement between the NSCN (IM) and the ULFA comes...

Dibrugarh/Guwahati, June 10: Cinema halls across Assam turned into high-security zones with gun-toting police and paramilitary personnel positioned at the entrances and filmgoers being screened with metal detectors to avert a repeat of the grenade blast that rocked a hall in Tinsukia. Suspected Ulfa militants yesterday lobbed a grenade on viewers seated in the stalls of Tinsukia’s Paradise cinema hall at the start of the matinee show. As many as 21 were injured, one of whom died at Dibrugarh Medical College and Hospital today.

The government asked officials in all districts to convene meetings...

GUWAHATI, June 10 (IANS): The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is seeking a "political solution" to end decades of violent insurgency in the region that has left thousands dead. "As a revolutionary group, we want an honourable and acceptable political solution to the long years of conflict," Arabinda Rajkhowa, chief of the banned ULFA, said in a statement.

He was reacting to New Delhi’s offers to hold peace talks with separatist groups in the north-eastern region.

"It now depends on the Indian Government’s sincerity in holding talks with us. We have always been hearing of successive...