Insurgency / Assam

Nagaon/Silchar, May 2: Delhi’s truce with the militant Dima Halam Daoga (DHD) in Assam’s North Cachar Hills and Karbi Anglong districts has run into rough weather with Dispur indicating it will petition the Union home ministry to rein in the group, much as it denies any ceasefire violation.

Sources said the officials of the two troubled districts informed the Tarun Gogoi government that it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain law and order in the absence of a mechanism to check violation of the ceasefire. A senior official in the North Cachar Hills said: “We cannot be strong with...

GUWAHATI, May 2—With Jehadi Islamic militancy on the rise across the globe, security agencies in the North East are worried about its spread in the region. With the region already embroiled in a large number of secessionist movements, there are fears that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) may fire the imagination of susceptible young minds, among the Muslims here, with “ultra-fundamentalist” propaganda.

What has caused alarm in security circles here is the steady growth in the number of madrassas in the region, particularly in the states bordering Bangladesh. Among these states...

SHILLONG, May 1– Cadres of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) are hiding in the jungles of the Garo Hills in Meghalaya, Assam and Meghalaya Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Ajai Singh has said. “We are aware that ULFA cadres, on the run following counter-insurgency operations in Bhutan have sneaked into the Garo Hills from Assam and have been hiding there,” Lt. Gen. Singh said during a brief interaction with the media after being sworn in as the Governor of Meghalaya at the Raj Bhavan in Shillong on Saturday.

Governor Singh would be in charge of Meghalaya for a period of one month as...

GUWAHATI, April 30 —Faced with near starvation, dispirited bands of militants belonging to both the ULFA and the NDFB are terrorising even the lower middle class people all over the State for money. The latest incident in Karbi Anglong, where two railway employees were shot dead by NDFB militants, is an indication of that, security officials say.

According to security sources, bands of militants are moving around the State without any support from their respective organisations. Evading the security dragnet and without any cash, they are now forced to target even the people belonging to lower...

DHAKA, April 2 – Bangladesh has virtually ruled out the possibility of extradition of jailed ULFA leader Anup Chetia saying the government cannot intervene in judicial matters, reports PTI. Foreign Minister Mohammed Morshed Khan told reporters here on Wednesday that "the government can't intervene in the matter as the case pertaining to Chetia is in the court." An NGO run by Sigma Huda, wife of Bangladesh's powerful Communication Minister Nazmul Huda, has moved the court pleading against Chetia's extradition and seeking political asylum for him in Bangladesh. The government is yet to take...

NEW DELHI, March 31 — On a day when Assam Government’s amnesty offer to fleeing militants from Bhutan expired, North East Coordination Committee on Human Rights (NECOHR), an apex body of human rights organisations, called on the Royal Government of Bhutan to publish the names of all those killed, detained and handed over to the Government of India. The bone of contention is the whereabouts of at least 19 cadres of outlawed ULFA and NDFB, who are traceless. The cadres reported to have been captured during the ongoing operation in the Himalayan Kingdom were not to be heard again, provoking deep...

Kokrajhar, March 10: The Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) executive member Bishiram Narzary has taken up an extensive programme for saving the forests within the Bodoland administrative set-up. Narzary, who holds the forest portfolio in the BTAD, has conducted a series of surprise raids, resulting in the seizure of illegal timber worth Rs 1 crore.

The BTAD is blessed with the largest forest cover in the state with a national park at Manas and three wildlife sanctuaries at Orang, Bornodi and Chakrasila besides several other reserved forests. However, militants and timber...

Miao, March 1: After the NSCN, Arunachal Pradesh police are gearing up to tackle the growing menace of the Ulfa in the state. Sources said a 40-member group of the Ulfa has begun serving extortion notes to businessmen, schoolteachers and government employees, particularly in the Bordumsa sub-division of Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh.

?Extortion notes demanding upto Rs 5 lakh have been served on the people and the copies we received were all on the Ulfa letterhead,? said a senior police official of the district. Till date, however, nobody has paid up, the officer added.

The Ulfa uses...

Nagaon, Feb. 28: The anti-talks faction of the United People?s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) has agreed to initiate a dialogue with the Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA) if the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) acts as the mediator and guarantor in the peace process.

The Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills People?s Resistance ? the armed wing of the UPDS anti-talks faction ? today said the militant organisation was ready to accept the Kuki outfit?s offer for peace talks ?if the KRA accepts the NSCN (I-M) as the mediator?.

In a statement, the general secretary of the armed wing of the UPDS (anti-talk faction), H...

Jorhat, Feb. 21: Suspected United People?s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) militants today abducted two tea executives from a private garden of Karbi Anglong district, further complicating the security scenario in the strife-torn hill district of Assam.

Sources said Bhagawati Tea Estate manager Sarat Dutta and his assistant Kumar were abducted around 8.30 am. The garden falls under Bokajan police station in the district.

Both Dutta and Kumar were inspecting the garden on a motorcycle when a group of six or seven suspected UPDS militants whisked them away. Kumar was to formally join the garden on...