Politics / Assam

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 30 ? The ceasefire between Central Government and Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) has been extended for another year. The ceasefire would remain in force till December 31, next year. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) here made a formal announcement to that effect today. The suspension of hostile operation between militant outfit DHD and security forces in Assam has been extended for one more year. The suspension of hostile operations has been in operation since January 1. It was decided to extend the suspension of hostile operations between the DHD and the security forces after mutual...

GUWAHATI, Dec 30 ? Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today accused the self-styled commander-in-chief of the banned ULFA, Paresh Baruah, and other top leaders of the outfit of standing in the way of talks with Government of India. Addressing a press conference at Janata Bhawan this afternoon, Gogoi in reaction to the ULFA leaders attaching pre-conditions for talks with Government of India (GOI), said that the ULFA cadres by and large wanted to sit for talks barring a handful like Paresh Baruah who are puppets in the hands of anti-India forces in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

?As long as the top leaders...

GUWAHATI, Dec 29: Violent inter-tribes conflicts confined to the two hill districts and tribal groups demand for right to determine their fate for themselves have sowed the seed for a new band of complex tribal politics in the State in the year gone by. The early part of the year was marred by violent clashes between majority Dimasa and minority Hmar tribes in North Cachar Hills district which witnessed mindless killings of members of both the tribes at the hands of Hmar and Dimasa militants as well as mob frenzy hitherto uncharacteristic in the tribal society in the State.

Scores of lives...

GUWAHATI, Dec 29: The recent clashes between Karbi Anglong?s majority Karbi and minority Kuki communities had about a decade-long history of acrimony behind it. Though the Karbi leaders are trying hard to project the clashes as ?group clashes?, reality speaks otherwise. Leaders of both the Congress and the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) are blaming the anti-talk faction of the United People?s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), a Karbi militant group and the Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA), a militant group of the Kukis, for the recent developments. They also go to the extent of demanding a...

SILIGURI, Dec 29: The crackdown on the militant camps by Bhutan Government had a serious impact on the Kamatapur Liberation Organisation(KLO), which in turn, will restrict the movement of the militants belonging to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) through the North Bengal corridor.

However, the security agencies are not ruling out the possibility of retaliatory violence by the militant groups out of frustration in the North Bengal area as any major act of sabotage in the area can cut off the entire north-eastern region from the...

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: The Royal Government of Bhutan is still undecided about handing over the bodies of the militants who were killed in operations in the country. Highly placed sources said that they are still continuing with the operations, which are spread out in remote areas in districts spread all over the country. The issue of handing over the bodies of the slain militants is yet to be worked out, sources said. The Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) is also yet to come out with the death toll among the militants. Initial reports pouring in from the country suggest that at least 70 militants were...

Tezpur/Guwahati, Dec. 28: Ulfa leader Bhimkanta Buragohain struck a defiant note two days after making a plea for peace, saying he would await instructions from the outfit?s chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and commander-in-chief Paresh Barua on his ?future course of action?. Buragohain, in his eighties, was presumed dead until the army paraded him and three more Ulfa members before the media in Tezpur on Friday. He was produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate along with his comrades this afternoon and remanded in police custody for five days.

The veteran Ulfa member?s remark on...

Dec. 28: On the run in Bhutan, Indian militants have made a dramatic appeal to China to provide ?safe passage? and ?temporary shelter?. ?At this moment, they (the cadre) have no other option but to enter the territory of the People?s Republic of China extra-legally to save their lives, negotiating sub-zero temperature and starvation.? We would like to request you and your people to permit them safe passage to your territory and temporary shelter necessary for their survival,? said a joint appeal signed by Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa.

The appeal was faxed to the ?Chairman of the People?s...

TEZPUR, Dec 28 ? The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Tezpur, HC Sharma today remanded the founder of ULFA and its political advisor Bhimkanta Buragohain (alias ?Mama?), along with three other ULFA leaders ? including self-styled major Robin Handique, Bolin Das alias Kamal Kachari and SS major Dr Amarjit Gogoi ? to five days? police custody. Talking to The Assam Tribune, counsels of the ULFA leaders, advocates Bijon Mahajan, Subhash Biswas, Bhaskar Dev Konwar, Nikabur Jaman and Raju Pradhan, informed that the ULFA leaders were produced before the residence of the Additional CJM this...