Insurgency / Assam

GUWAHATI, July 19: The recent spate of violence in the Karbi Anglong district of Assam during the past three days has once again exposed the explosive law and order situation prevailing in the two hill districts. At least 60 persons have lost their lives in the districts since April. And while in the first few incidents, the victims were either Nepalis or Biharis, the situation has drastically changed during the past two days with the Karbi tribals now becoming target of retaliatory attacks. The latest reports of violence have come from Serapathar village under Kheroni police station, where at...

JORHAT, July 19: After Tata Tea, it is now the turn of tea giant Williamson Magor to be in the news with the arrest of four of its officials today by the Jorhat Police following a top executive of the group offering direct help to a member of the banned ULFA. The incident has its roots in the 'Chief Secretary' of the Kakadonga Sakha Parishad, one Ratul Dutta alias Sangram Koch recently falling sick after a bout of malaria at an ULFA camp along the Assam-Nagaland border and having availed treatment on July 13 under Gajen Gogoi, employed by the Williamson Magor group at Mohbandha Tea Estate off...

GUWAHATI, July 19: The law-and-order situation in the Karbi Anglong hill district is deteriorating day-by-day as six more persons were killed in the ongoing ethnic clashes in the district last night. Police sources said here that a group of about 20 to 25 miscreants, suspected to be of Bihari community, armed with bows and arrows attacked a Karbi village No 2 Serapathar under Kheroni Police Station at around 2 am last night and killed six persons. Three others were seriously injured in the attack. Police sources said that those killed in the attack have been identified as Babu Ronghang (20)...

DIPHU, July 18: Incidents of violence continue to rock the Karbi Anglong Hill district as militants belonging to the United People's Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) gunned down at least six persons in the Baithalangshu area of the district last night. This was the second major incident of killing in the district within the last three days as 10 persons were killed in the Keroni area of the district on July 16 last. A group of suspected UPDS militants shot dead Basa Kro (aged 65 years) and his wife Lisha Terapi (55) from close range at Karoigaon village under Baithalangshu Police Station at...

GUWAHATI, July 17: In another major breakthrough a police team arrested a top ULFA militant suspected to be the linkman with Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence at Vellore in Tamil Nadu. Sources said that the police team acting on specific information conducted a raid at Vellore and arrested the top ULFA militant Hasan Ali who happens to be the member of the ULFA's central committee. He was also the chief of the Chaur Development Committee of the outfit and was mainly doing liaison work among immigrant population to which ULFA has of late started using as their hideouts in the state. He is...

GUWAHATI, July 16: Sunday's massacre of 10 non- tribals in the hill district of Karbi Anglong was not unexpected, but there was little the police could do to avert it. It was the eighth massacre since April, and the third this month, and the total number of known victims now stands at 50. Almost all the victims were either Bihari, Nepali or Bengali. As in the earlier cases, Sunday's massacre too is attributed to the United People's Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), formed on May 22, 1999 by the merger of two earlier militant groups, the Karbi People's Front and the Karbi National Volunteers...

GUWAHATI, July 16: At least 12 persons including one policeman and three militants were killed in three separate incidents in Karbi Anglong and Barpeta districts since this morning. However, according to agency reports 14 persons were killed. Police sources said here that after a brief lull, the militants belonging to the United Peoples' Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) struck again in the Karbi Anglong hill district in the wee hours today, killing at least eight persons including four children. Police sources said that a group of about five to six heavily armed UPDS militants opened fire at the...

GUWAHATI, July 16: After intensifying the presence of the Army on the international border with Assam, the National Assembly of Bhutan has directed its security forces to check the General Engineering and Reserve Force and Army vehicles passing through the national highways of Bhutan, especially near the areas where the militants had their camps. Suspecting that drivers of these trucks operating for the GREF and Indian Army are also hand-in-glove with the militants, the National Assembly passed this resolution during its current session. The resolution, which was also published in Royal Bhutan...

GUWAHATI, July 16: In yet another massacre by tribal guerrillas of Karbi Anglong in the hills of Assam left at least 10 non-tribals, including five children, dead near Hambren. The heavily armed militants surrounded two small hamlets in the hills of Karbi Anglong and opened indiscriminate fire that killed three men, two women and five children of two families. All the deceased were non-Karbi. The administration suspects the hand of the United Peoples Democratic Solidarity militants. More than 50 non-Karbi villagers in the district's Hambren sub-division have been killed so far. The UPDS came...

GUWAHATI, September 10: A bizarre tragedy today took five lives, including that of the superintendent of police (SP), Sibsagar and an Army officer when a landmine accidentally went off in the office chamber of the SP at Sinbsagar town. While SP PK Lohia, Lt Nazir, constable Dulal Neog and journalist Jiten Chutia died on the spot, photo journalist Al Farid Sajad died at a private nursing home. Police sources said that this afternoon, Lohia held a press conference in his office to explain the details of an encounter with a militant earlier in the day. After most of the journalists left the...