AGARTALA, January 28: Matching the Protestant Church's overzealous conversion drive, the hoda okra (head priest and community leader) of the devout Hindu Jamatya tribal community, Bikram Bahadur, has unveiled a new set of programmes as part of his ongoing crusade against forced conversion of Hindu tribals by NLFT militants. Calling upon the Jamatya and other Hindu tribesmen not to bow down to the "fascist designs" of the NLFT militants and their patrons, Bikram Bahadur Jamatya and his deputy Haricharan Jamatya have urged all Hindu tribals to attend the dharma samsad slated to be held here in...

GUWAHATI, January 28: Prakash Karat, Politburo member of Communist Party of India (Marxist) today called upon the AGP for clarifying its stand in regard to its relationship with the BJP in view of the latest development in the political scenario of the State. Speaking at the state-level rally of the party's Assam State Committee at Judges' Field here this afternoon Karat maintained that his party would have no hesitation in continuing its alliance with AGP in the coming Assembly polls provided the party toed the CPI(M)'s one-point agenda of defeating the sinister designs of both BJP and...

GUWAHATI, January 28: The King of Bhutan has said that if Bhutan failed to convince the militants belonging to the ULFA and NDFB to leave Bhutanese soil through peaceful negotiation, it would be left with no alternative but to resort to military action. Addressing the people's representatives of Sarpang area of Bhutan recently, the King said that the ULFA and NDFB cadres were seasoned militants, who had been fighting the Indian Army for years. He pointed out that the ULFA and the NDFB militants entered Bhutan in the early 1990s to escape from the military operations launched against them by...

NEW DELHI, January 28: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a show-cause notice to 32 Rashtriya Rifles regiment posted at Pangiawal in Manipur in a case of murder of a Kuki tribal in Northeast asking why a compensation of Rs one lakh be not given as interim relief to the victim, reports PTI. NHRC, which received a complaint from Kuki Movement for Human Rights, Manipur, against the Army's 32 Rashtriya Rifles posted at Churchandpur camp, for murderingone Haosinglhun Changsan, in its recent order gave four weeks time to the Army officials to respond. The Commission had earlier...

JORHAT, January 28: Leisurely basking in the soft rays of the morning winter sun during the evening of his life at his garden before his Teok Jagduar residence 20 kms off Jorhat, freedom fighter Kumudeswar Bora's mind raced back in time while recollecting his experiences spread over 99 summers. Bora, is one among the district's oldest living 'soldiers' of the Freedom Movement and is now on the threshold of his 100th birthday, having completed 99 years and eight months to be precise. Presently afflicted by a dimmed eyesight and somewhat impaired hearing, Bora is nonetheless mentally agile and...