Insurgency / Northeast

Kokrajhar, Jan. 29: Posters appealing to militants to surrender appeared in villages along the Indo-Bhutan border in Assam two days before the expiry of the deadline to avail of Dispur?s general amnesty offer.

The posters appealed to members the Ulfa, the National Democratic Front of Boroland and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation to lay down arms and return to the mainstream.

?The army is here to help you. Surrender with your weapons. Get a new life with a cash award and a job. Bring peace to your heart, mind and area. You are most welcome to surrender,? read a poster put up by the army.

T...

Jan. 21: The chief ministers of five states jointly appealed to Delhi to declare militancy in the Northeast a ?national problem? as violence continued to rock parts of the region. Three security personnel were today killed and five seriously injured in the latest strike by the banned Ulfa, which is reportedly trying to avenge the crackdown on its camps in Bhutan.

The militants triggered an improvised explosive device at Ronsi in Meghalaya?s East Garo Hills around 7.30 am, blowing up a van carrying security personnel.

Two of them, one from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the other...

Agartala, Jan. 15: Bangladesh Rifles jawans have directed militant commanders to abandon their bases and take shelter in rented houses in residential areas. Reports from across the border said over the past month, militants have deserted their camps in Sylhet, Maulvi Bazar and Habiganj districts of Bangladesh, bordering North Tripura, Dhalai district and Khowai and Sadar (north) subdivisions of West Tripura district.

Official sources from North Tripura said a camp at Kukijhuri in Sylhet district adjacent to Kumarghat in North Tripura had been burnt down after the militants left.

?The camp...

NEW DELHI, Jan 1 - In yet another move towards building trust and confidence with Pakistan, India today said it is interested in making the existing open-ended ceasefire 'permanent' even as it urged SAARC countries to emulate Bhutan in flushing out insurgents from their soil, reports PTI. The ceasefire now in place was open-ended and not bound by any timeframe of one month, six weeks or two months, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters at Delhi Airport before emplaning a special IAF Boeing-737 aircraft for Islamabad for the SAARC summit.

"Therefore, India is interested in...

Imphal, Dec. 31: A secessionist outfit of Manipur today welcomed the ambitious 1,360-km-long trilateral highway project connecting the country with Myanmar and Thailand. The banned Revolutionary People?s Front (RPF) in a statement said the proposed project would benefit Manipur.

Foreign ministers of the three countries, in a meeting in New Delhi on December 23, agreed to take up the $700 million project linking Moreh of Manipur and Maesot of Thailand through Bagan of Myanmar. The foreign ministers decided to launch the first phase of the project, which would cost $252 million, from early next...

NEW DELHI, Dec 31 ? Reacting to outlawed ULFA?s clarion call for help, China has turned it down cautioning that it has alerted its Frontier Forces to check intrusion by the militants into the country. A spokesman of the Chinese embassy in its first-ever reaction to the ULFA?s appeal said that the peoples republic has taken note of the reports and it would closely monitor the situation. ?We are confident that Chinese frontier forces are capable of safeguarding the security and stability of our border areas,? the spokesman said. China has always followed the principle of non-interference in...

GUWAHATI, Dec 31 ? Though the process of handing over of the militants arrested by the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) to India is still on, security agencies are of the view that several senior militants are still in the captivity of the RBA. Highly placed security sources said that the RBA has informed the Government of India about the arrest of several other top leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) but they are yet to be handed over to India. According to information available with the security agencies, top leaders of the ULFA and...

New Delhi, Dec. 30: India wants its neighbours to follow the example of Bhutan?s operation against Northeast insurgents entrenched in its territory to show their commitment to ?good neighbourly? relations. Foreign secretary Shashank said the issue of Indian terrorists camping in neighbouring countries would be raised at the discussion of senior officials of the Saarc summit beginning in the Pakistani capital tomorrow.

In Guwahati, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi accused Bangladesh of playing a major role in the growth of insurgency in the Northeast, saying its reluctance to admit the presence...

GUWAHATI, Dec 30 ? Noted filmmaker Jahnu Barua, celebrated author Indira Gowami, prominent journalists Sanjoy Hazarika , Patricia Mukhim, Dileep Chandan and others have called on Bhutan and India to ensure transparency and respect the rights, especially of non-combatant women and children, in the ongoing military operations in Bhutan.

In a statement e-mailed to this newspaper they have urged that civil society groups and media be given access to the detainees. They also called on the armed groups to turn to dialogue and end their armed struggles in an effort to solve the problems of the...

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Buoyed by Bhutan?s operation against Indian insurgents, India will seek to build pressure on Bangladesh for a similar action against the north-eastern insurgents? camps on its soil by raising the matter at a high-level meeting here next week, reports PTI. A list of 180 camps operating in Bangladesh and 85 prominent insurgents based there will be handed over to Dhaka during the five-day Director General-level meeting of BSF and Bangladesh Rifles being held here from January 6, official sources told PTI.

During the meeting, which will be attended by top officials of...