SHILLONG, August 23: A high-level meeting of police and civil officials besides nongovernmental organisations will be convened here soon to draw up an action plan to counter the unabated infiltration of Bangladeshis into Meghalaya and activities of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The meeting is being convened by the state deputy chief minister, D D Lapang, in response to a memorandum submitted to him by the Khasi Students' Union (KSU) here today. Quoting a United News of India (UNI) report based on a home ministry survey indicating "on an average 1,000 Bangladeshis cross over to...

GUWAHATI, August 22: The Army today warned that it would not remain a mute spectator if the rival National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) factions in Nagaland try to engage themselves in inter-group violence taking advantage of the ceasefire between the government of India and the NSCN(Isak-Muivah). The Army's reaction came in the wake of the killing of the general secretary of the Khaplang faction of the NSCN, Dally Mungro, which is now posing a serious threat to the ongoing moves for peace and unity among different rebel groups. In a statement, the Army said, "No government can remain...

GUWAHATI, August 22: It is the return of the estranged son. Golam Osmani has decided to join the Congress once again. He returned as a Janata Party nominee to the Assam Assembly in 1978 from the then Cachar district riding the cradle of the anti-Congress wave which swept the entire country following the 1975 Emergency. Abul Fazal Golam Osmani, however, could not relish power for long as a Cabinet minister in the Golap Barbora ministry which fell following a massive desertion by the party MLAs to the Congress (J)-backed Assam Janata Dal led by late Jogen Hazarika. Osmani again became a Cabinet...

AGARTALA, August 22: The possibility of an alliance between the newly-formed Trinamul Congress in Tripura with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has run into rough weather with the latter declining to accept the former as poll partner. "We cannot accept Sudhir Ranjan Mazumder as candidate for the Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency. Our grassoots workers have already lodged strong complaints against the candidature of Mazumder," general secretary of BJP's state unit, Rakhal Majumder, told reporters here today. He alleged that a conspiracy was hatched against BJP in 1991 as a result of which...

GUWAHATI, August 22: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today announced its first list of candidates, whose names were cleared by the party's core committee yesterday, for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in the Northeast States. The party will contest 10 seats of its own out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The NCP general secretary and former Lok Sabha Speaker, Purno A Sangma told a press conference that the party had, so far, finalised the names of four candidates for Assam. The names of candidates for the remaining six seats will be declared on August 30 next. The party will...