Insurgency / Northeast

GUWAHATI, Feb 9— Over the years, the North Eastern region of India, particularly, Assam has been suffering because of the Government of India’s soft stand towards its “friendly neighbour countries” of Bhutan and Bangladesh, where the insurgents operating in the region are still taking shelter. Till date, the Government of India seems more concerned about its western border and Kashmir, while, the same problem facing the NE region is overlooked for the reasons best known to the persons at the helm of affairs at Delhi. Even in the present day context, when there is a world-wide campaign against...

DIBRUGARH, Feb 8 — Just days before Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) services of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) was to start off in Assam, the defence and frequency allocation mandarins have decided that the facility has to be kept under wraps in the State. The reason? These “specialists” think that the militants would use the technology for subterfuge! Before going into a bit of a detail, it would be pertinent here to note that the Government of India had declared earlier that all the villages of the country would be linked by telephones by March 2002. Given the dismal track record of...

NEW DELHI, Jan 30 — Border Security Force (BSF) is likely to be deployed along the Indo-Bhutan border shortly in a bid to check the free movement of insurgents across the international border in the State, even as Assam Government sought additional para-military forces. At a meeting with Union Home Minister LK Advani, Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi briefed him about the prevailing situation in the State in the wake of the sudden spurt in killings by the underground outfits including the ULFA and the NDFB militants.

The Chief Minister who was accompanied by top State Government officials...

GUWAHATI, Jan 30 — The police and the security forces are fighting insurgency with their hands tied because of the militants’ bases in the neighbouring country, Bhutan, said Minister of State for Home, Pradyut Bordoloi. Talking to The Assam Tribune, Sri Bordoloi said that the militants frequently sneak into their bases in the neighbouring country after each strike, making the task difficult for the security forces. He revealed that Assam has around 265 kms of virtually unprotected border with Bhutan and the need of the hour is to seal the border with effective dominance of security forces. He...

UDALGURI, Jan 23 – Security vigil along the 265-long Indo-Bhutan border will be tightened to stop the militants from perpetrating henious crimes like the massacre of innocents at No. 3 Borigaon and Bijni once again. This was said by Sri Pradyut Bordoloi, Minister of State for Home Affairs, while interacting with the local media persons here at Udalguri circuit house on January 23. Commenting on the carnage carried out by militant outfits, Sri Bordoloi said that the killings in Bijni and Udalguri was a conspiracy and it was carried out by the NDFB extremists.

On the security of the innocent...

GUWAHATI, Jan 16 — Several underground organisations of the North-east have appealed to the people to boycott the Republic Day programmes on January 26. In a statement, the organisations said that the ‘Indian occupation forces’ had started exploitation on the people of the region causing a serious problem. ‘We have been fighting to achieve freedom by overthrowing Indian colonial rule,” they said. The organisations also appealed to the people to observe a day-long strike on Republic Day. The organisations are — Arunachal Dragon Federation (ADF), Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC), Dima...

NEW DELHI, Jan 13 — The Bangkok Consultative meeting of the Nagas has called for repealing of all special Acts under implementation in Nagaland and withdrawal of the ban on Naga movement outfits and arrest warrants against the leaders, besides upgradation of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism to an autonomous body. The crucial four-day Naga Consultative meeting attended by 44 delegation from several north-eastern States including Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland concluded with the delegates adopting several vital resolutions that may have deep impact on the ongoing negotiations between...

GUWAHATI, Jan 12 — India and Bhutan have decided to strengthen bilateral ties and check activities of militants through regular border district level coordination meetings. According to a report in Bhutan’s state run newspaper Kuensel, the last round of the border district coordination meeting was held at Jalpaiguri between January 7 to 9. The Joint Secretary of the Bhutanese Home Ministry, Dasho Tshering Wangda led the Bhutanese delegation, while, the Indian delegation was led by the Commissioner of Jalpaiguri division, AK Jain.

Apart from other bilateral issues, the border district level...

SILIGURI, Jan 12— ISI spymaster Mohammed Dilshad, arrested for running an espionage ring in North Bengal, was nabbed just as he was preparing to leave for Guwahati to open a clandesting network in Assam, and thereafter in other North-eastern states sources said on Friday, report agencies. Dilshad, described as a ‘Resident Agent’ had handlers identified only as Col Khatak, Commanding Officer (Operations) of the ISI and his deputy Maj Ahmed based in Hyderabad in Pakistan’s Sindh province, the sources said. They had recently instructed Dilshad to expand his espionage activities to the entire...

GUWAHATI, Jan 9 — The gameplan of the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of monitoring the movements of the Indian troops in the North-Eastern part of the country and North Bengal areas was foiled after a swift operation by the central intelligence agency and other security agencies. The most disturbing fact in the whole episode is that during the operations, the security agencies found out that the ISI was able to infiltrate into the ranks of the Indian Army. Security sources in North Bengal told The Assam Tribune that the whole episode came to light following the arrest of ISI agent...