Insurgency / Assam

GUWAHATI, Dec 23: Bhutan does not see the need for involvement of the International Committee of Red Cross at present in the evacuation of non-combatant women and children of the ULFA, NDFB and KLO camps, demolished in the operation against the outfits by its Army. Bhutan Deputy Head of Mission in India Thinley Penjor told PTI today from New Delhi over phone that the ICRC had met ambassador Dago Tshering yesterday with a request to allow its delegation to visit the kingdom. ?The government at this stage does not see the need for their (ICRC) involvement. Their help will be taken later if...

GUWAHATI, Dec 23 ? The Gauhati High Court has directed that NDFB publicity secretary B Erakdao and some other militants captured during operations in Bhutan be handed over to the nearest police station if they were in army custody. A Division Bench comprising Justice D Biswas and Justice I Ansari also directed the state government to immediately produce Erakdao before a magistrate within 24 hours. The Bench was hearing a Habeas Corpus filed by Erakdao?s niece Regina Narzary stating that he had been handed over to the Indian Army on December 16 but the State administration was yet to locate him...

GUWAHATI, Dec 22? The Gauhati High Court today issued a notice on the petition filed by the Manab Adhikar Sangram Samitee (MASS) and directed the petition to come up for further orders on January 2. The petition has been filed for an order from the High Court regarding the handing over of the dead bodies of combatant and non-combatant members of the underground ULFA whose camps have been under attack in Bhutan. The Division Bench of Justice D Biswas and Justice IA Ansari further directed the Army authorities to hand over the body of Bhimkanta Buragohain, the octogenerean founder-member of the...

PANERY(Indo-Bhutan border), Dec 22 ? Bhutan is determined to weed out Indian militant groups from its soil and the Army?s ?Operation All Clear? will continue, a spokesman for the Bhutan government said today, reports PTI. There would be no let-up in the Army operation against the ULFA, NDFB and KLO ultras who illegally operated from camps in Bhutan for 12 years, the spokesman, Yeshey Dorjee, told PTI.

The Royal Bhutan Army is now concentrating on the deeper recesses of the jungles where they had escaped after their camps were destroyed, Dorjee said. Apart from dealing a heavy blow to the...

GUWAHATI, Dec 22 ? Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today informed the State Assembly that the State Government has requested the Centre to initiate talks with the militant outfits of Assam by following the principles adopted in holding talks with the NSCN(I-M). Replying to a question by Jagadish Bhuyan (AGP), the Chief Minister said that the Centre is also keen on holding talks with the militant outfits. But at the same time, he said that the Centre is not willing to accept the preconditions set by the ultras for coming forward to the negotiation table.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home...

Guwahati, Dec. 21: The Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA) has urged the United People?s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) to revoke its war call against the Kukis in the twin hill districts of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills in Assam. A KRA statement said the Karbi outfit ?must first withdraw its statement on declaration of war on the Kukis?.

?It was the UPDS which had sparked the killings by targeting the Kuki population in the Singhasan hills of Karbi Anglong,? the statement said.

?We are just defending ourselves. We are also for peaceful coexistence, but will not take anything lying down. We...

Guwahati, Dec. 21: Cornered by Bhutanese troops but apparently more angry with the Indian army, a frustrated Ulfa today said the armed forces on this side of the Indo-Bhutan border had launched a propaganda war to ?demoralise? its ranks. Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua said in an interview to an Internet news portal that the army had wrongly announced the capture of a couple of its top leaders.

?Major Bening Rabha and Captain Biju Deka are very much present in Bhutan and leading the fightback. The news of their surrender and arrest has been spread by the Indian army to break the morale of...

IMPHAL, Dec 21?The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isasc Muivah) extending moral support to ULFA and other revolutionary organisations which have come under heavy attack from the Bhutanese army in Bhutan for the past few days, has imposed a 24 hour bandh in all Naga areas in the North east.

The bandh began at of 6 am on Sunday 21 and will conclude at 6 am the following day, according to sources here. The outfit which is currently continuing peace talk with the Government of India since August 1997 also stated that they fully endorse the 48 hour bandh called by ULFA, NDFB and KLO.

Mea...

GUWAHATI, Dec 21 ? The Bhutanese Government is attaching priority to the safety of the unarmed women and children living in the Indian militants? camps in Bhutan. The Royal Government of the Himalayan kingdom is taking all the care to provide food and shelter to these inmates of the militant camps, said Director of Bhutanese Foreign Ministry Yeshey Dorji yesterday. He was talking to this correspondent at the regional Revenue and Customs Directorate of the kingdom?s Samdrup Jongkhar district yesterday.

When the Bhutanese official was talking to this correspondent at Samdrup Jongkhar, the...

NALBARI, Dec 21? Police today produced ULFA publicity secretary Mithinga Daimari and the five other militants handed over to it by the Army authorities last evening, before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Nalbari. They were remanded to five days police custody by the Court. Mithinga was captured by the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) at Sixth Mile on the northern part of Samdrup Jongkjhar town on December 16 where he was taking shelter in a solitary house. His two body guards were not around when the RBA raided the house. The RBA also seized Mithinga?s M-20 pistol.

Talking to this correspondent...