Politics / Northeast

NALBARI, Dec 25 ? The on going operation of the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) against the militant outfits ?with the direct help? of the Indian Army, will make the NE people re-think the issue of sovereignty raised by the militant organisations, said president of the All Assam Students? Union (AASU) Prabin Boro here today. Sri Boro, who was talking to The Assam Tribune, also said that the recent developments in Bhutan had also made it quite relevant for the NE militants to come forward for negotiated solutions to the issues they had raised. For, he said, the militants should honour the sentiments...

DIBRUGARH, Dec 25 ? In a strongly worded message faxed to the Prime Minister today, the All Assam Ahom Sabha has called for an end to the ?systematic annihilation of Assamese youths? in Assam and Bhutan by the security forces. The Sabha said that in Assam in the last thirteen years, thousands of Assamese youths have been killed ?mostly in fake and sometimes in actual encounters.?

The Sabha has come down heavily on the Assam Police too, saying the police have arrested and maimed Assamese youths in their hundreds and framing them in cooked up charges. Terming the Bhutanese army action against...

GUWAHATI, Dec 24 ?The banned United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) today virtually rejected the general amnesty offered by the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for those ultras who are willing to give up arms. In a statement e-mailed to this newspaper office this evening, the banned outfit came down heavily on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for giving call to the members of the outfit to surrender in the wake of the military offensive launched by the Bhutanese Army. The ULFA criticised the Chief Minister for showing the ?audacity? to give the call to surrender at a time when ?barbaric Bhutanese? Army...

DARRANGAMELA (Indo-Bhutan border), Dec 24 ? The Royal Bhutan Army was heading towards its goal of flushing out Indian militants from their soil on the tenth day of their ?Operation All Clear?, reports PTI. After demolishing 30 camps set up by the militants in their kingdom, the troops cordoned off the area near the camps to search for the rebels who fled after they were dislodged, official sources in Bhutan told a visiting PTI correspondent.

With no leaders to give them directions, nowhere to go and hungry, the fleeing militants were desperate to surrender to either the RBA or Indian...

GUWAHATI, Dec 24 ? Governor of Assam Lt Gen (retd) Ajai Singh today claimed that some major leaders of the banned ULFA, NDFB and KLO outfits who are on the run in Bhutan have established contact with the security forces in the country expressing desire to surrender. Talking to the media at Raj Bhawan here for the first time since the Royal Bhutan Army launched the crackdown on Northeast militants outfits, the Governor sent out the message to the ultras that those who are willing to surrender could do so at the nearest security post in the country without fear for their lives as the Government...

TAMULPUR, Dec 24 ? Ending the week-long speculation, the Royal Government of Bhutan today handed over 64 kin of the ULFA militants at Samdrup Jongkhar to the Nalbari district administration. Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Samdrup Jongkhar formally handed over the militants? kin to the DC of Nalbari at the Samdrup Jongkhar High School this morning.

The kin were later taken to the Tampulpur 30-bedded Hospital campus by the Nalbari district administration by two buses. The kin included 37 women and 27 children .Five of the women were unmarried.The women included the wife of Ashanta Bagh Phukan...

Nagaon, Dec 23: The last batch of Khasi-Pnar refugees returned to their homes in Karbi Anglong yesterday after spending over two months in Meghalaya. Over 4,000 Khasi-Pnar residents of blocks I and II of Karbi Anglong had fled their homes and taken shelter in the Jaintia Hills after being served extortion notes by the militant United People?s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), which professes to represent the Karbi community. The result was a backlash against Karbis residing in Meghalaya.

The situation, however, appears to be limping back to normality with the final batch of about 500 refugees...

Jalpaiguri, Dec. 23: If Bhutan was their sanctuary, Bangladesh was the armoury ? in a manner of speaking. Indian intelligence has been saying that arms for insurgents in India?s Northeast have been coming in through Bangladesh, but the recent crackdown by Bhutan on rebel camps has again brought into focus the role of transit and landing points on the smuggling route on the soil of the eastern neighbour.

Dhaka has denied these charges. But, after Bhutan responded to persistent Indian requests to act against the northeastern militants, the pressure on Bangladesh could go up with Delhi using the...

IMPHAL, Dec 23: Normal life was affected in Manipur today due to 12-hour general strike called by the separatist Manipur People?s Liberation Front in solidarity with the ULFA, NDFB and KLO whose camps in Bhutan were busted. Markets, shops and business establishments were closed and people preferred to remain indoors. Attendance in both Central and State government offices was almost nil, official reports said, adding that transporters also cancelled long-distance services. Police and para-military forces had been deployed in all sensitive points and patrolling intensified in various places...

SHILLONG, Dec 23: Bhutanese students have been fleeing Shillong over the last couple of days in the wake of Northeast-based ultra outfits having decided to serve a ?quit notice? on the Bhutanese nationals living in the region. Nine extremist organizations of the region, including the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), have decided to serve ?quit notice? on Bhutanese nationals residing in the Northeast faced with continued onslaught by the Royal Bhutanese Army in the Himalayan Kingdom. The ULFA, while demanding immediate cessation...