Politics / Assam

NEW DELHI, May 19 ? Alarmed at the presence of Northeast militants on its soil, Bhutan has decided to set up a counter-insurgency force to fight them and asked India to ensure that no more militants enter the tiny Himalayan Kingdom, reports PTI. ?They (North-east militants) have to be made to leave the country before they strengthened their presence in Bhutan,? a senior Bhutanese official Sonam Tshering was quoted as saying on the internet edition of government funded newspaper Kuensel.

Bhutan has asked militants to wind up their camps before June 30 failing which Government would take...

GUWAHATI, May 18 ? Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said the State Government was keen to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Adivasi people. The matter will be discussed in the next Cabinet session and then the Centre will be moved for expediting the process, he said. Speaking as chief guest at the concluding session of the sixth Adivasi Mohasabha organised by the All Adivasi Students? Association of Assam, Gogoi said the Government was doing its best to enure all-round development of the Adivasis. ?Adivasis living on government land for a long time will be granted pattas?, he declared...

HAFLONG, May 16 ? Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi alongwith DG(P), Home Commissioner, Commissioner, Hills and Barak valley etc visited Haflong, the district headquarter of North Cachar Hills, which has witnessed killing of several innocent, burning of houses etc due to recent ethnic clash between the Dimasa and Hmar today.

To console both the bereaved family of Normendu Langthasa and Lienzaova Toulour, who were killed by unidentified gunmen on May 12, Gogoi visted both the places of Langthasa and Toulour and shared sorrows with the families. The Chief Minister held a meeting with the Chief...

GUWAHATI, May 14 — Accusing the Congress, the Left and ‘people with vested interests like Madani’ of being ‘busy’ playing the communal card over the issue of repeal of the IMDT Act, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said that it is against the communalising of this issue.

BJP’s organisation in-charge for the North East states V Satish, in a statement today took strong exception to the statement reportedly made by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi terming the decision of the Union Cabinet to repeal the Act as a political gimmick. He said that the Chief Minister should have thought twice before...

Silchar, May 12: The conflict between the Hmar and Dimasa tribes appears to have reached flashpoint with the killing of two prominent members of either community on the same day.

Narmendu Langthasa, the fourth son of veterinary minister G.C. Langthasa, was evidently shot dead to avenge the killing of a Hmar leader about an hour earlier. The killings followed the pattern of the ethnic clashes since February — instant reprisal for each attack.

The biggest of these incidents was the massacre of 22 Dimasa tribesmen by Hmar militants in Cachar district on March 31.

Though the atmosphere remained...

GUWAHATI, May 12 – The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) today announced a series of agitational programmes demanding holding of a joint session of the Parliament to repeal the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act. The AASU today also demanded immediate steps to seal the Indo-Bangla border to check fresh influx, implementation of all the clauses of the Assam Accord within a specific time frame, constitutional safeguard to indigenous people of Assam and to prepare the national register of citizens.

In a release here today, Prabin Boro and Amiya Kumar Bhuyan, the...

NEW DELHI, May 12— Dubbing the move to repeal the controversial IMDT Act as BJP’s political gimmick, Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi has hinted on planning an action to counter the move, even as he said that the Central Government should have consulted him before tabling the Bill to repeal the Act. “I am the elected Chief Minister of the State and the Centre should have obtained my opinion before moving the Bill to repeal the Act,” a dejected Sri Gogoi said.

The Chief Minister started his move right from the top when he called on AICC president, Sonia Gandhi to apprise her of the fallout of the...

GUWAHATI, May 12 — Armed militants struck twice in the heart of Haflong town of North Cachar Hill district today killing two persons in broad daylight including a son of State Hill Areas Development Minister Gobinda Chandra Langthasa and an employee of the Divisional Forest Office (DFO). Police sources here informed that suspected Hmar militants coming in an autorickshaw opened fire at Narmendu Langthasa who was travelling in his car along with his wife to fetch his daughter from a convent school in Haflong town, killing him on the spot while his wife had a narrow escape.

The slain Narmendu...

Guwahati, May 11: Putting up a joint front against the Centre’s decision to scrap the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, over a dozen minority organisations today formed a coordination committee to stall the move by highlighting the inherent dangers it posed to religious and linguistic minorities of the state.

The United Minority Coordination Committee, formed under the chief convenorship of United Minority Front president Hafiz Rashid Choudhury, will take up a series of “nationwide” programmes to spread awareness about New Delhi’s move to scrap the Act.

The committee will...

GUWAHATI, May 11 – A joint meeting of 10 organisations, including nine minorities’ organisations, held here today under the auspices of the United Minorities’ Front (UMF), Assam, made an appeal to all the people in general and the minorities in particular, not to be provoked by the BJP and other forces’ bid to whip up communal tension in the name of repeal of IMDT Act.

The meeting presided over by UMF president HRA Choudhury also urged upon the people to maintain vigil against the designs of the communal forces and to keep intact the traditional peace and amity in the society at any cost. It...