Insurgency / Assam

RANGIA, Jan 24 ? The Army?s strategy of resource control, by choking the supply routes of the ULFA and the NDFB insurgents holed up in Bhutan, is paying rich dividends as the outfits? camps are being starved of essential commodities and medicine. The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Tezpur-based 4 corps, Lt Gen Mohinder Singh, AVSM, said here today that it has led to the lowering of the morale of the ULFA and NDFB cadres.

Lt Gen Singh, who was speaking to newspersons after attending the ?rehabilitation ceremony? of 27 ULFA and NDFB cadres, said that things required to sustain the...

Silchar, Jan. 23: The projected cost of converting the 204-km metre gauge rail track between this town and Lumding station into the broad gauge, estimated at Rs 608 crore the project was launched in 1996, has escalated to Rs 1,400 crore.

Expressing concern over the escalation, a senior official of the North East Frontier Railway (construction) ascribed the hike to the ?niggardly flow of funds? from the railway ministry.

He said rain and occasional attacks by militants had slowed down the project and had resulted in cost escalation.

The official, however, hoped that the construction would...

BONGAIGAON, Jan 23 ? The banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) had decided to refrain from indulging in ?major strikes? for a few months in anticipation of the Government resolving its demand for a separate Bodoland, a top NDFB leader said, reports PTI. ?We have been watching the attempts of the government to solve the Bodoland issue, Hence we have decided to abstain from causing major damages for another few months,? top NDFB leader Digvijoy Doimari alias Rajen Musharahari, told PTI somewhere in Bongaigaon district. ?But we will never move away from our goal for a separate...

Dibrugarh, Jan. 22: The army today denied the Ulfa claim that the outfit had killed 15 soldiers at Daisajan tea estate under Doomdooma police station in Upper Assam?s Tinsukia district yesterday.

A person, claiming to be Ulfa ?commander-in-chief? Paresh Barua, had called up The Telegraph yesterday and claimed that the outfit had killed 15 soldiers in an encounter with the army in the tea estate.

?It is a cowardly act of a group of militants who are frustrated and want to prove their existence,? said Maj. Gen. H.S. Batra, GOC of 2 Mountain Division, in charge of counter-insurgency operations...

Sangbor Hills (North Cachar), Jan. 21: Barely three weeks after a ceasefire between the militant Dima Halam Daoga (DHD) and the Centre began, the outfit has accused security forces of violating the ground rules that were framed for cessation of hostilities.

The charges were levelled at a press briefing ? the first since the ceasefire came into effect ? at the outfit?s ?third battalion headquarters? at Sangbor, 46 km from Umrangshu in North Cachar Hills district.

DHD president Jewel Garlosa alleged that during the past three weeks, there had been four incidents of violation of ceasefire ground...

Guwahati/Dibrugarh, Jan. 21: The Ulfa today claimed to have killed 15 soldiers and injured several others in a pre-dawn attack on a camp housing a platoon of 6 Jat regiment in Daisajan tea estate under Doomdooma police station in Tinsukia district. A person, claiming to be Ulfa chief Paresh Barua, called up The Telegraph and claimed that a group of 30 armed cadre of the outfit attacked the army platoon. Though army officials based in Laipuli in Tinsukia district admitted that the attack took place, they said that there were no casualties.

Guwahati, Jan. 21: Mortar attacks have added a ?new dimension? to security perceptions in the Assam capital, but police are fully prepared to quell the latest arsenal of militants, director-general of police Hare Krishna Deka said today.

Talking to The Telegraph, Deka said the shelling on December 25 had forced a change in the security strategy. ?All efforts are on to ensure that the coming Republic Day will be free from trouble.? Deka had yesterday reviewed the security scene at a meeting of deputy inspectors-general of police.

The new security strategy has already paid off, the police chief...

GUWAHATI, Jan 21 ? In the Sanjay Ghosh killing case, seven prosecution witnesses today deposed before the ad-hoc Additional Sessions Judge Kamrup P K Phukan here, reports PTI. The witnesses were all residents of Majuli river island in upper Assam where social worker Sanjoy Ghosh of Avard-NE was working and abducted by the ULFA on July 4, 1997.

None of the witnesses turned hostile. One of the accused, ULFA cadre Kaniya Hazarika, who was charge-sheeted by the investigating agency CBI and is in judicial custody now, was also present in the court. The next recording of another witness would be...

Jorhat, Jan. 20: The CBI has rounded up nine persons from Majuli in connection with the abduction and subsequent killing of social worker Sanjoy Ghose. They would be presented before the court as witnesses tomorrow.

The second hearing of the sensational case will be held tomorrow. The first hearing was on December 17.

Sources here said the CBI team, which landed on the island on January 18, failed to track down Chandan Doley, a prime witness to the incident. Doley, who was abducted along with Ghose from Mekheli village in the island on July 4, 1997, managed to escape from the clutches of the...

New Delhi, Jan. 20: An expected Bodo agreement stumbled in the last stretch before breasting the tape, compelling the Centre to merely extend the ceasefire between the security forces and Bodo militants for a month from tonight.

The ceasefire, which had held the fragile peace in the Bodo region, was scheduled to expire tonight.

Expectations were high that an agreement would be wrapped up at the end of today?s tripartite negotiations between the Assam government, the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) and Union home ministry officials. Even a memorandum of understanding (MoU) had been prepared and...