Politics / Assam

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...

NEW DELHI, July 17: The Supreme Court today directed all the Northeastern states besides West Bengal affected by the illegal infiltration from across the border to respond to the updated status report filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), even as the Centre again reaffirmed its contention that the IMDT Act is a discriminatory piece of legislation. The MHA counter affidavit filed today, however, declined to specify any time-frame for repealing the controversial Act. The Ministry's response came in connection with a writ petition filed by the former All Assam Students Union (AASU)...

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: 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: Serious thinking is needed as to whether the present size of the administration is needed in Assam where the productivity of the government employees is very low, according to economist and chairman of the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi), Jayanta Madhab. He said the state has at present 5,50,000 people on its payroll. About 70 per cent of the budget goes in paying salaries to them. Madhab, a former director of the Asian Development Bank, said moreover most NEDFi entrepreneurs have the complaint that they have to grease the palms of the...

UDALGURI, September 7: The Asom Nepali Sahitya Sabha (ANSS), a premier literary organisation of Assam, has expressed deep concern over the ongoing khilanjia issue raised recently by All Assam Students' Union (AASU). The organisation has appealed to the AASU leadership to ponder over the issue with intellect and full conscience, stated a press release issued by Laxmi Prasad Parajuli and Kamal Chandra Upadhyaya, president and secretary respectively. The literary organisation also appealed to the AASU leaders to define the term khilanjia and to express their clear views on the Indian Nepalese.

GUWAHATI, September 3: The Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) chairman, Justice Surendra Nath Bhargava, has denied reports appearing in a section of the press that he was involved in any financial wrongdoing during his tenure as Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court, before he took up his present assignment. "I am pained to see such reports", Justice Bhargava said. "Three years after my retirement from the post I am now being accused of misappropriating a few thousand rupees which is not fair", he said. Of late, some reports have appeared in the press that Justice Bhargava, during his stint...

RANGIYA, September 2: Tension prevailed in Rangiya and its neighbourhood following the physical torture meted out to about 500 people of Batahkuchi, Bichennala, Kothra, Jamtola, Gariakoth, Tokonkata and Hairandab, villages under Rangiya circle by the Army and the police during a joint operation early this morning. The operation, led by the Rangiya subdivisional police officer, Mahesh Sarma, was launched by the Army and the police in those villages as a sequel to the United Liberation Front of Asom's gunning down of two masons at Hairandab on August 29 last. The ULFA action came in retaliation...

NEW DELHI, August 30: In a significant development, the Centre today formally clarified its stand on the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, notifying the Supreme Court that it is actively considering to scrap the Act, as it was hampering in detection and deportation of illegal aliens, overriding the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946. The central government's stand was made known to the Apex Court through the counsels for the ministry of home affairs in a case relating to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking deportation of foreigners, even as the Assam...