Politics / Assam

GUWAHATI, June 2 ? The snail?s pace that the way things are moving the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is unlikely to reorganise the party units at all levels before the next general election in the State. Sources in the party informed that although the president Brindaban Goswami, who had earlier set six-month deadline in September, 2001 to reorganise the party from the grassroot level, recently assigned all the six general secretaries of the party to expedite the process if reorganisation, the things are not moving at the desired pace.

A highly-placed party source on condition of anonimity...

NEW DELHI, June 2 ? Lt Gen (Retd) Ajai Singh, who served as the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the four Corps in 1992 and spent many years in North East, was today appointed Governor of Assam, reports PTI.

Singh succeeds Lt Gen (Retd) S K Sinha who was recently appointed Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Singh?s appointment will be ?with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office,? a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said. Gen Sinha will take up his new assignment as J and K Governor on June 4.

Meanwhile, Raj Bhawan sources said here today that Lt Gen Singh will arrive in the city...

Guwahati/Silchar, June 1: The truce between the Centre and the Dima Halam Daoga (DHD) hangs by a thread with the militant outfit accusing security forces of ?provocative actions? against its members and the Hmar community of persecuting the Dimasas.

With only a month left for the six-month ceasefire to end, the DHD is undecided on whether it should extend the term of the agreement.

DHD vice-president Dilip Nunisa said over phone from Haflong, the headquarters of North Cachar Hills, that his outfit was alarmed by the situation in the district and in two minds on the issue of extending the...

NEW DELHI, May 31? Lt Gen (Retd) Ajay Singh, who has spent considerable number of years of active service in the North-east, is likely to be named the next Governor of Assam, informed sources said today, reports PTI. Lt Gen Singh, who served as the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the 4 Corps in 1992, would replace Lt Gen (Retd) S K Sinha who would take over as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir on June 4. The sources said the name of Lt Gen Singh was approved by the government and a formal notification is likely to be issued after President APJ Abdul Kalam returns from his official tour to...

Guwahati, May 30: Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua seems to be living the charmed life of a cat with nine lives: he reportedly survived the fifth attempt on his life by unidentified gunmen in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Like on the previous four occasions, this time, too, there has been no official confirmation from the Bangladeshi authorities on the incident. Even the Bangladeshi media has come out with reports denying the news of the latest ?attack? as ?baseless?.

The mass-circulated English daily Independent quoted the new commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Md. Ashraful Huda as saying...

GUWAHATI, May 22 ? The Karbi Students? Association (KSA) has decided to ?gherao? the offices of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) on May 29 to compel the elected representatives to ?act positively? on their demands centred on not granting ST(H) status to the Bodos living in the hill district. ?The KSA is determined to launch relentless struggle till the government concedes to the demand raised by the organisation,? KSA president Bidya Teron said during a press conference here today.

Deciding to launch a series of mass agitational programmes to protest against Clause 8 of the BTC...

GUWAHATI, May 21 ? There was a time during the Assam movement when people of Assam left that the All Assam Students? Union (AASU) could do no wrong, but now its image is under a scanner and the organisation is facing allegations like the same set of leaders holding on to their posts for years, failure to deal properly with the problems of the students etc. It is a fact that not many new faces are coming up to take the leadership of the AASU, the biggest students? organisation of the State and the organisation also failed to hold its annual conferences regularly to elect new executive bodies...

Guwahati, May 20: Ulfa ideologue and the outfit?s vice-chairman, Pradip Gogoi, today said a military operation by Bhutan to dismantle militant camps there would be the ?wrong move?.

Reacting to a report in The Telegraph today about Thimphu?s plans to dismantle all camps of the Ulfa and the NDFB by November, the jailed militant leader told newspersons outside a Tada court here that Bhutan could not expect to resolve the issue through aggression.

The Ulfa alone has nine camps in Bhutan.

Gogoi, who has been languishing in jail in Guwahati since his arrest in Calcutta in 1997, said Bhutan should...

Guwahati, May 20: Ulfa vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi, in jail since 1997, today lambasted the All-Assam Students? Union (AASU) for ?diluting? the issue of infiltration by foreigners and making ?too much noise? over the proposed repeal of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act.

In a no-holds-barred attack on the student organisation, the Ulfa leader said, ?Those who signed the Assam Accord in 1985 should be pulled up. Why didn?t they insist that the Act, promulgated in 1983, should be repealed or amended before signing the accord??

He said the infiltration issue must be seen from...

GUWAHATI, May 19: The Royal Government of Bhutan has called upon its nationals to voluntarily join a government militia force to fight and remove the ULFA, NDFB and Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO) rebels operating from bases inside the tiny Himalayan kingdom, reports today said.

"When the security and sovereignty of our country is under threat, the true sons of the soil must step forward and not wait to be called upon to serve their country," Bhutan?s King Jigme Singhye Wangchuk was quoted as saying by Kuensel, the country?s national newspaper.

Addressing a group of people?s...