Dec. 28: On the run in Bhutan, Indian militants have made a dramatic appeal to China to provide ?safe passage? and ?temporary shelter?. ?At this moment, they (the cadre) have no other option but to enter the territory of the People?s Republic of China extra-legally to save their lives, negotiating sub-zero temperature and starvation.? We would like to request you and your people to permit them safe passage to your territory and temporary shelter necessary for their survival,? said a joint appeal signed by Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa.

The appeal was faxed to the ?Chairman of the People?s...

NEW DELHI, Dec 28 ? Acting along expected lines, the Government of India has turned down ULFA?s conditional offer for negotiations, even as the suspension of flights between Bhutan and Bangladesh came into effect today. The outlawed ULFA?s offer for talks with a slight variation was not what New Delhi was expecting and it was promptly rejected. The Government of India is interested to hold dialogues with ULFA but without any pre-conditions, Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi had told newsmen on Friday here after deliberating on the issue with officials of Union Government.

Union Minister of State...

TEZPUR, Dec 28? ULFA?s political adviser and the founder of the outfit Bhimkanta Buragohain, who is presently in police custody in Sonitpur district after he alongwith four other ULFA cadres, was handed over by the Indian Army to the State Police, said that he had not surrendered before anybody including the Royal Bhutanese Army (RBA).

In an exclusive interview to The Assam Tribune, here Buragohain, popularly known as ?mama? in the rank and file of the outfit, said the attack on the North-east-based militant outfits (ULFA, NDFB and KLO) by the RBA was beyond imagination. The RBA has betrayed...

Tezpur/Guwahati, Dec. 27: The Ulfa and the NDFB reeled under further setbacks today with 51 militants captured by the Royal Bhutan Army being handed over to the police in Nalbari and Darrang districts. There were reports that all Ulfa, KLO, and NDFB camps in Bhutan have been razed to the ground.

Of the 51 rebels, 32 were handed over at Tamulpur in Nalbari district and the remaining 19 at Mangaldoi in Darrang district. Sources said another batch of nearly 30 Ulfa and NDFB rebels is likely to handed over by the RBA tomorrow.

In Mangaldoi, the army also handed over 18 AK-56 rifles with bayonets...

Dhubri, Dec. 27: West Assam and North Bengal will soon be connected by railway network. Railway minister Nitish Kumar has assured the joint convenor of New Moinaguri-Jogighopa Railway Extension Demand Committee, Tazmul Hoque, that a new broad gauge railway line from New Moinaguri to Jogighopa will be completed soon.

Hoque said tenders for the three-phase work ? from Moinaguri to Changrabandha, Golokganj to Gauripur and Mathabhanga to Jogighopa (Abhayapuri) ? have been completed following a final location survey by the Rail India Technical Economic Services (Rites).

The railway network in the...