AGARTALA, May 17 – Six Border Security Force men, including an assistant commandant, were killed in an ambush by insurgents of the outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura on Thalcherra-Gobindabari road in Tripura’s Dhalai district today. Police said that two vehicles carrying BSF men of the 22nd battalion were returning to Chhamanu from Thalcherra area of the district when the insurgents lobbed two powerful grenades at them and then pumped bullets at the vehicles around 12.30 pm, killing six people on the spot. The ultras snatched one LMG, three SLRs and two carbines. The police said the...

Kohima, May 16: Over 5,000 people braved two blasts in Kohima and a warning from the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) to participate in the birth centennial of the pioneer of Naga insurgency, Angami Zapfu Phizo. The first explosion occurred around 8 am at the playground near which the centenary programme was to begin three hours later.

Another blast rocked the area after the event got under way as scheduled. Some people seated in one of the stands within the playground ran for cover on hearing the explosion, but returned within minutes.

Police said nobody was injured in the...

New Delhi, May 16: The North East People’s Forum (NEPF), which was formed last year to checkmate the Left and the Congress in the region, is showing signs of confusion with Sonia Gandhi all but taking over the reins of power in Delhi. Parliamentarian Purno A. Sangma, whose idea it was to float the forum of non-Congress parties barring the Left, has been unambiguous in his stand about not supporting a Sonia Gandhi-led alliance at the Centre. His NEPF ally and Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio is, however, non-committal on the subject.

Rio, whose Nagaland People’s Front’s is an ally of the...

AIZAWL, May 16 – Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga Thursday expressed the hope that peace initiatives in the North East region would not be affected in the event of the Congress coming to power, reports PTI.

Zoramthanga, involved in the Naga peace deal and who is acting as the go-between the Centre and other insurgent groups of the region, said that Central leaders, who wanted national integrity would not derail the peace process that had been initiated during the NDA rule.

''Coalition politics have come to stay in the country and leaders in Delhi could never rule highandedly as in the...

MANGALDAI, May 16 — Though the Congress wrested nine LS seats in Assam, it stands to lose in terms of LAC votes as its vote banks have eroded in several LACs like Nazira where the CPI LS candidate got 35,245 votes against the Congress candidate languishing with just 17,134 votes in the 2004 Parliamentary elections.

The Congress had got less votes, LAC-wise, in the areas of Cabinet ministers of Assam, Devananda Konwar, Hemoprava Saikia, Sarat Borkotoky and prominent Congress MLA Pranab Gogoi.

Meanwhile, the Sonari LAC represented by Sarat Borkotoky has recorded a reverse swing in the Congress...