News

Agartala, May 23: The Union home ministry has blacklisted as many as 824 NGOs operating in the Northeast and Sikkim for suspected links with militant outfits.

Sources said the ministry last week informed the governments of six states of the region ? only Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh do not figure in the list ? about the presence of pro-militant NGOs in their areas and specifically asked them not to extend any form of assistance to these.

Meghalaya tops the list with 323 NGOs of doubtful integrity, followed by Manipur, which has 197. Assam is third with 151 such organisations, Nagaland has...

Guwahati, May 23: After much cajoling over the past two days, NSCN (I-M) leaders Isak Chisi Swu and Th. Muivah today met the Centre?s chief interlocutor, K. Padmanabhaiah, in Bangkok but indicated that this was the last time they were holding talks with a bureaucrat.

There was speculation that the latest round of talks ? originally slated for Wednesday ? would be no more than a stock-taking exercise by Padmanabhaiah and middle-ranking leaders of the NSCN (I-M). The top leadership of the outfit, however, consented to meet the former Union home secretary following meetings between him and other...

TEZPUR, May 23 ? Considering the large scale illegal trade on wildlife contraband which has been regarded as the second most profitable business for smugglers and international dens, next only to narcotics, the ?Charwa Gunners? of the Indian Army apart from the strenuous task of counter insurgency operation has undertaken the ?Save Kaziranga Operations?, at the world famous Kaziranga National Park, the home of one horned Asiatic Rhino.

Talking to The Assam Tribune, official sources said that India has been an importer, exporter and a conduit for wildlife contraband that touches volumes of...

SHILLONG, May 23?Meghalaya Chief Minister D D Lapang has questioned NCP leader Purno Sangma?s claim to be a facilitator for talks with the ANVC. Speaking to newsmen at the state secretariat conference hall Friday afternoon, Lapang said the government will probe why and under what circumstances the sitting MP from Garo Hills met with the militant outfit, asserting, ?Nobody is above law. Even DD Lapang, Chief Minister is not above law.?

Sangma who is NCP national general secretary and his party colleague Adolf Lu Hitler R Marak have both claimed to have held talks with the outlawed ANVC...

KOHIMA, May 19? The NSCN(I-M) has claimed it does not have any relation with Nagaland Transport Minister Yeangpong Konyak and clarified that the arrested activist of the outfit had forcibly used the State government?s vehicle to carry explosives for his personal interest. Assam police had earlier arrested Arun Wangchuk, personal secretary of the Transport Minister and three others, including an NSCN(I-M) activist, on the inter-State border check post in Karbi Anglong district on May 6 and seized a huge cache of explosives.

An NSCN(I-M) release issued here Saturday said the organisation...