Insurgency / Assam

DIBRUGARH, April 2 — Dreaded SULFA-man, ‘Guli’ alias Nayan Jyoti Das was hacked to death by a violent mob at the Santipara area of the city last evening. He was rushed to the Assam Medical College Hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival. His body had deep gashes on the cheeks, and he died of uncontrolled bleeding. Along with Guli, two others have been lynched by the mob: Santu Das, a cloth merchant and Ganesh Ghosh, a paan shop owner. The condition of the latter is critical. Guli and some anti-socials had been terrorising a section of the city’s population for quite some time now...

Guwahati, April 1: In a move that could open a Pandora’s box in the insurgency-ravaged Northeast, the Assam Assembly today began a debate on including the thorny subject of “sovereignty” in a dialogue between the Centre and the Ulfa.

The debate was prompted by a private member’s resolution moved by AGP members Dilip Kumar Saikia and Sarbananda Sonowal. The duo urged Delhi and Dispur to accept the Ulfa’s main condition for talks — inclusion of the issue of Assam’s “sovereignty” in the agenda — because the deadlock would never be broken if both sides remained adamant.

Initiating the discussion...

Guwahati, March 31: The abduction of Meghalaya-based customs inspector Deepak Mahanta and six others by the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) has led intelligence agencies to suspect that the outfit is “desperate” for funds to sustain a massive recruitment drive along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

The focus of the NDFB’s new recruitment drive is Haluaghat in Mymensing district, an area that is home to a sizeable population of Bodos, Rabhas and Garos. Intelligence sources said the outfit was extorting money from people on either side of the border in a bid to collect enough funds to...

JORHAT, March 30 — “Three ULFA militants, namely Mridul Hazarika, Anjan Barthakur and Phatik Hatimuria, who have since been named as co-accused in the murder of AVARDNE general secretary Sanjoy Ghosh at Majuli river island on July 4, 1997, are still sheltered at camps run by the organisation in Myanmar”, claimed five disillusioned cadres, including a sister-in-arms, who surrendered before police, paramilitary and high-ranking district administration officials at the Sadar police station here today.

Admitting that the ULFA was presently running five training camps with 1,200 youths in the...

Guwahati, March 29: The Assam government today said it would move the defence ministry if the one-man inquiry into the recent killing of a hog deer in Kokrajhar district establishes the alleged involvement of the army.

State forest minister Pradyut Bordoloi informed the Assembly that conservator of forests (western range) has been asked to conduct a probe into the incident and the army authorities have been requested to co-operate.

The minister made the statement when Bodoland Demand Legislature Party member Hemendra Nath Brahma drew the attention of the minister of state for home, Rockybul...

DIBRUGARH, March 28 – A Subedar of the 28 Punjab Regiment, one Sukhwinder Singh, has brought a bad name to his unit as well as the Army as a whole. On Wednesday night, he allegedly tried to molest a lady from Calcutta who was staying at the city’s posh Little Palace Hotel. The lady, an engineer with a prominent steel making company, is these days in the city alongwith her husband. Last night, an Army team searched the hotel rooms, supposedly looking out for ULFA militants. This was around 8-45 pm.

About an hour later, the said Subedar (a Subedar is a junior commissioned officer, or JCO) again...

New Delhi, March 25: Member of Parliament and former interlocutor to the Mizo and Naga talks, Swaraj Kaushal, has appealed to Ulfa leader Anup Chetia to retract his decision of seeking asylum in Bangladesh. Kaushal has stated his desire of taking up the matter with the Centre for “his (Chetia’s) safe return to Assam”.

Golap Baruah alias Anup Chetia, general secretary and a founder member of the Ulfa, was arrested in Dhaka in 1997 and has four cases pending against him, including illegal possession of foreign currency, arms and forged passport.

A Bangladeshi court had recently sentenced the...

NEW DELHI, March 25 — Former Mizoram Governor and senior Rajya Sabha MP Swaraj Kaushal has offered his services to intervene on behalf of imprisoned outlawed ULFA leader Anup Chetia to work out his safe return to Assam.

In an open letter to the general secretary of the outfit currently lodged in Dhaka jail, Sri Kaushal has said, “if you agree I am prepared to intervene on your behalf and take up the matter with Government of India for your safe return to Assam.” Sri Kaushal, who was the moving force behind the singing of the Mizo Accord, said he was distressed by reports that Anup Chetia has...

SHILLONG, March 17 — Meghalaya is preparing for a major offensive against militant outfits in the Garo Hills amidst reports of intrusion of large numbers of Assam militants into the State. A senior police official said the ongoing operations by the Meghalaya Police against militant outfits would be intensified once the Centre clears Meghalaya’s request for BSF support to flush out the extremists who have sneaked into the State from Assam.

Confessions of three arrested NDFB militants have led the police to believe that nearly 100 NDFB activists including its Chairman Ranjan Daimary and...

SILCHAR, March 16 – The militant outfit Dima Halom Daoga (DHD) today set a deadline of a week to the NSCN(IM) to release their kidnapped cadres. In a fax message to the local media here, the DHD publicity secretary Daoraja Dimasa alleged that the NSCN(IM) had kidnapped the cadres to disrupt the ongoing peace process between the Centre and the outfit.