Insurgency / Northeast

DIMAPUR, July 29: In a move that may have far-reaching consequences in combating militancy, policymakers in North Block are evolving a new policy of streamlining state police forces to tackle insurgency in the Northeast while diminishing the overwhelming presence of the Army. This is in line with the defence ministry's initiative to relieve the Army of the job of maintaining internal security in the insurgency-prone region and hand over the task to paramilitary forces, particularly Assam Rifles. The hierarchy in the defence ministry are of the view that excess employment of Army for militancy...

KARGIL, July 29: Lieutenant Tarun Saikia's parents and friends in Assam think he is a trainee bank manager in State Bank of India in Jammu. And comrades-in-arms of Captain Jintu Gogoi say his neighbours were surprised back home in Assam when news came that he had died fighting in Kargil. They did now know he was in the Army. The brave Assamese soldiers fighting fearlessly in the icy wastelands north of Zoji La are haunted by fear of a different kind. They have to worry about the safety of their families back in Assam. The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has threatened all Assamese...

AIZAWL, July 28: The Mizoram government will set up more police posts to prevent Myanmarese rebels from entering the state from across the border, the state home minister, Tawnluia, told the Assembly on Tuesday. He said the state government was aware that Myanmarese Army personnel while chasing the rebels have on occasions illegally entered Mizoram. Tawnluia said the police and Assam Rifles personnel, on receiving reports of such cross-overs, repeatedly pushed back both the Myanmarese armymen and rebels. The Myanmar Army, while in hot pursuit of the rebels fighting against the military junta...

GUWAHATI, July 28 - The banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has shifted three of its big camps further deep inside Bhutanese territory to avoid conflicts with the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA), according to the deputy inspector-general of the Border Security Force (BSF), Ashok Kumar. He said the outfit had shifted the camps last week in view of the Bhutan government's fresh move to evict them from its soil. The Bhutan government had held two rounds of talks with the leadership of the ULFA and during the discussions the latter had agreed to reduce the number of men instead of leaving the...

PHUENTSHOLING, July 23: The Bhutan government has served an ultimatum on the ULFA and Bodo terrorists to leave the country or face eviction. Meanwhile, the government has decided to enforce a cut-off in supplies to the terrorists in camps. The terrorists sneaked into the dense forests in Bhutan on the Bhutan-India border in 1992 and established as many as 21 camps between Kalikhola and Daifam. The spurt in their activities in Bhutan was noticed following the pressure on the ULFA terrorists in Bangladesh by the Bangladesh government a few years ago. The home minister of Bhutan Thinley Gyamtsho...

GUWAHATI, July 20: Security agencies in the Northeast are on the alert for large numbers of fake currency notes being circulated - strongly believed to be the handiwork of the ISI of Pakistan. In the past few months, police in the region have seized a large number of fake notes from different towns, the biggest haul being reported from Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram. Last month, Aizawl police seized fake Rs 500 denomination currency notes totally Rs 86,500 from two persons arrested from a village on the Mizoram-Manipur border.

KOHIMA, July 17: He's too told to walk five miles, up and down the mountain, so he stays at home. And the villagers come down, 85-year-old Pfulhousa can't believe it. They tell him stories of the funeral of his grandson Lt Neikezhakuo Kengrurusie, how thousands were there, including 29 Assam Rifles officers, all the way from Dimapur airport to Kohima and then to the family burial place at Pheza. His grandson dies hero in faraway Kargil. Nagaland hasn't seen anything like this since the death of its legendary leader Phizo in 1989....

.....The sense of pride also pervades villagers at Ancholi in...