Politics / Assam

GUWAHATI, April 28: The All-Assam Students' Union today threatened to go for a statewide bandh on May 2 if the Centre did not deploy Army personnel along the Assam-Bangladesh border immediately to prevent infiltration. AASU general secretary Amiyo Kumar Bhuyan said here this morning that the Army personnel should also help in "pushing back" infiltrators who are already living in the state. Bhuyan said a memorandum had been sent today to President K.R. Narayanan with copies to the Prime Minister, the home minister and the defence minister. Terming the "goof-up" in the Mancachar sector as a...

GUWAHATI, April 28: The weapons handed over by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) to BSF on verification have been found to be that of the 16 BSF men killed by BDR on April 18 in Mankachar sub-division of Assam, even as questioning of the two returned injured BSF jawans had begun, BSF sources said today. The sources from Shillong told PTI here the weapons - 11 SLR, four carbines, one pistol, two grenades, two wireless transmitter sets and a large cache of ammunition - had been examined and verified at Tura in Meghalaya. The Bangladesh Rifles had handed over the weapons on Thursday at the Mankachar...

GUWAHATI, April 27: The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has hatched a plan to target several prominent Ministers during the poll process, highly placed police sources said. Sources revealed that the Chief Minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and his wife Jayashree Goswami Mahanta, MP have been identified as the prime targets by the militant outfit as the ULFA leadership is of the view that they suffered serious setbacks because of the tough stand taken against them by the Chief Minister. The other Ministers likely to be targeted by the ULFA include the Agriculture Minister Chandra Mohan...

GUWAHATI, April 26: The snowballing dissidence in the Assam PCC today blew over when several rebel Congressmen withdrew their nominations in favour of the party's official candidates. PCC chief Tarun Gogoi had appealed to all rebel candidates to pull out of the contest yesterday. The battlelines have been drawn for the May 10 Assembly election with a total of 914 candidates left in the fray for the 126 seats. Fifty-three contestants withdrew their candidature today, the last date of withdrawal of nominations. Dissident Congress candidates who withdrew their nominations include Prasanna Malla...

GUWAHATI, April 26: Peace for development is the focus of the election manifesto of Asom Gana Parishad. The manifesto which was released by the party president, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, here this morning, pledges to carry on its efforts to bring back peace to the insurgency ravaged State if the party is voted to power in the forthcoming polls. The regional party poll manifesto identifies insurgency as the major impediment in the path of development and reiterates its commitment to provide security to lives and property of common people in the State. The AGP also highlights that the party does...

NEW DELHI, April 26: A fierce tussle over leadership in the Assam Congress Party is likely to break out between the camps of State president, Tarun Gogoi and Bhubaneswar Kalita following a decision of the AICC high command not to back any State leader as a Chief Ministerial candidate. Even as the Assam Congress leadership continue to grope in the dark, clueless how to handle the growing dissident activities, the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to hit the campaign trial in the State with a meeting in Tezpur on May 30. She is slated to address a few more meetings in Sonitpur and...

NEW DELHI, April 26: Hesitation to fire at civilians led to the capture and killing of 16 BSF personnel at Boraibari on the India-Bangladesh border on April 18, official sources said here, reports PTI. Detailing the incidents which culminated in the killing of 16 BSF personnel, they said the deceased border guards were patrolling the area to prevent intrusion by BDR after 'unprovoked' attack by the Bangladeshi border guards three days earlier when three battalions of troops targeted an Indian Border Outpost (BDP) at Pyrdiwah. "The BSF patrol party came under heavy fire from BDR troops at...

PYRDIWAH, April 26: Union Minister of State for Home, ID Swami today said that India would take all measures to strengthen security of the Indo-Bangla border in the wake of the recent killing of 16 BSF jawans by Bangladesh Rifles, reports PTI. Addressing the villagers here, he said that the Central government had taken the incident very seriously and the people should not have any fear in residing here. The dispute over the land was a long pending one and it might take sometime to resolve it, he said adding that it was under the occupation of India since independence and would remain so until...

GUWAHATI, April 24: The Grahak Suraksha Sanstha (GSS) has called upon parties and candidates contesting the ensuing elections to the Assam Legislative Assembly (ALA) to unequivocally state their positions and declare their policies with regard to the various burning problems of the common people and has further urged the voters to unsparingly question and cross-examine the candidates during the election campaign. In a release to the press, GSS president Deven Dutta and secretary Olee Nath have said that parties and candidates, stuck up to their necks in the uagmire of squabbles and fisticuffs...

GUWAHATI, April 25: Though there is a ban on wall painting on the walls of the Government offices, almost all the political parties are making free use of the walls of the State and Union government offices in utter violation of the norms. As per the code of conduct issued by the Election Commission, no political party or candidate can put up hoardings, cut outs, wall paintings etc. on highways, walls of the Government buildings and traffic inter-section crossings, without prior permission. As per the Commission's instruction, such unauthorised cut outs, hoardings, wall paintings etc. should...