Insurgency / Assam

KOKRAJHAR, April 18— About 3250 families, residing in relief camps since the outbreak of ethnic riots in Kokrajhar, have been recently sent back home under a rehabilitation package by the Kokrajhar district administration. Their rehabilitation has been made possible after the release of Rs 3 crore in February. So far, about 5,100 families have been rehabilitated. According to Kokrajhar deputy commissioner Dr Ashish K Bhutani, the recently rehabilitated families have been drawn from the Sapkata, Dorogaon, Patgaon, and Sonapur relief camps. The rehabilitation process was completed in the first...

GUWAHATI, April 18 — The banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is desperately trying to remain in the limelight by attacking soft targets. Over the past few months, the outfit has been severely weakened by the killing of several middle-level leaders all over Assam and the clash of personalities among its top leadership. Security sources said here that the desperation of the ULFA is evident from the fact that it chose to attack the Digboi refinery last month despite it being designated as world heritage site. The Digboi refinery, set up in 1901 is the first refinery in India and among...

New Delhi, April 17: The Union home ministry has traced the genesis of the bloody Dimasa-Hmar ethnic feud in Assam to a resolution adopted by the North Cachar Hills District Council to rename the district as “Dima Halali”.

Sources in the ministry said the resolution was the first of several “deliberate attempts” to create a chasm between the Dimasas and other communities of North Cachar Hills district and adjoining Cachar.

There was an “uneasy calm” in North Cachar Hills immediately after the resolution was adopted in January. The restive atmosphere boiled over in the next couple of months...

April 17: As Cachar and North Cachar continue to burn, another ethnic conflict is brewing in neighbouring Karbi Anglong over granting of Scheduled Tribe (hill) status to the Bodos living in the hill district.

Assam home commissioner B.K. Gohain told The Telegraph that security in Karbi Anglong has been beefed up in view of the indefinite road and rail blockade called by the militant outfit, the Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills People’s Resistance — a frontal organisation of the anti-talks faction of the United People’s Democratic Solidarity.

The blockade is scheduled to begin on April 25...

Guwahati, April 16: The banned National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) today alleged that the recent abduction of three activists of the Dima Halam Daoga (DHD) and the subsequent killing of 28 Dimasas were the handiwork of “Indian intelligence agencies”.

The NDFB, however, refrained from naming any outfit and urged the “kidnappers” to release the DHD militants without any condition. The DHD has blamed the militant Hmar People’s Council (Democratic) for the two incidents. “The NDFB is seriously concerned over the incident and urges the kidnappers to free the DHD members immediately...

GUWAHATI, April 16 – No fresh incident of violence has been reported from any part of the ethnic riot hit North Cachar Hills and Cachar districts in the last 72 hours, said the Inspector Geneal of Police (Special Branch) Sri Khagen Sharma. Talking to this correspondent here this evening, Sri Sharma said that additional forces – two companies to Cachar district and four companies to NC Hills were rushed to bring normalcy. The paramilitary forces have also been redeployed to deal with the situation.

Sri Sharma said that the situation in the riot-hit districts is fast returning to normal and...

Guwahati, April 14: The US-based Kuki International Forum has charged the Assam government with being “biased” in its handling of the ongoing Hmar-Dimasa conflict in Cachar and North Cachar Hills districts.

In an open letter to chief minister Tarun Gogoi, the forum claimed the state administration had been partial towards the Dimasas since the clashes in south Assam began. “The biased nature of the state government has been in evidence since the beginning of the conflict,” it said.

The Kuki community, which inhabits several areas of the two districts, had been perceived to be neutral on the...

Jorhat, April 13: Eight years after it was raised, the Assam Tea Plantation Security Force (ATPSF) is struggling to combat the might of militant outfits without the high-tech communication tools considered necessary for such a battle.

The force, raised in 1995 exclusively for the protection of tea garden executives, has been deployed in about 100 tea estates of Upper Assam, Darrang, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur and Silchar. It has 115 platoons, comprising about 3,000 personnel.

An ATPSF platoon commander who wished not to be named told The Telegraph that members of the force, especially those stationed...

April 13: Strife-torn Cachar continued to be rocked by violence while tension simmered in neighbouring North Cachar Hills district though there were no fresh incidents of violence.

In the continuing ethnic clashes in Cachar, four more houses were set ablaze in Nutan Punji area as four police outposts were put up in Hmar and Dimasa-dominated areas and police patrolling intensified.

Police sources said unidentified men torched four houses belonging to Hmar and Nepali communities. The militants also opened fire before escaping to the nearby jungles. The police also recovered a body from the...

Shillong, April 12: Meghalaya police have pieced together tell-tale signs of the proscribed Ulfa’s nexus with the Taliban in Afghanistan and Korean gunrunners following the recent seizure of a large cache of sophisticated weaponry from the outfit’s hideouts at Phulbari in West Garo Hills district.

Police have seized during raids over the past three days “a mini-truckload” of sophisticated weapons, including 96 rocket-propelled grenades, 11 large rockets, eight rocket launchers, 15 anti-tank devices, 680 rounds of 12.76 MMG ammunition, two AK-56 rifles, several rounds of bullets for AK-series...