Guwahati, April 10: The only female elephant trainer in Asia, Parvati Barua, today dismissed charges of cruelty on an elephant which she had captured in Chattisgarh and later died in captivity. Animal rights activists had kicked up a storm after the incident.

In her first defence in her home state since the death of the elephant on February 24, Barua rebutted the charges brought against her point by point. She claimed that “not a single ‘expert’ who really knows about capturing and training elephants has blamed me”.

“I feel sad that the elephant captured in Chattisgarh did not survive. But...

TURA, April 9 — The huge cache of arms seized by the West Garo Hills Police on Tuesday evening after an encounter with militants was meant for the banned ULFA. The outfit had planned to transport the armoury from Garo Hills to Assam to attack security forces and disrupt normal life during its raising day, which passed of Monday. Documents seized from the encounter site reveal these facts. The arms shipment was brought all the way through Bangladesh and concealed in Chisikgre village of West Garo Hills, bordering Assam, since the last two weeks, highly places sources revealed.

A team of ULFA...

NEW DELHI, April 9 — The hue and cry over presence of a huge migrant population in the border areas, notwithstanding, the Union Government so far has not made any effort to identify the illegal migrants, even as Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed that Assam Government has submitted an eight-point formula for checking influx of foreigners from across the border.

Contrary to its claims about presence of 10 million illegal migrants in the country, the Central Government has no official data to prove its point. “The question on nationality was not canvassed at the Census 2001 and therefore, it is...

NEW DELHI, April 9 — The high-pitch rhetoric that Centre has neglected Assam has not moved the Union Government as it has drawn the conclusion that the State has not been able to make rapid progress in implementation.

The reason for Centre’s analysis is the State has been given adequate funds but it has not been able to utilize it. For instance, Minister of State of State for Statistics and programme Implementation, S B Mookherjee pointed out that Assam could spend only Rs 7,091.03 crore out of then allocation of Rs 8,140.28 crore during five annual plans of the Ninth Five Year Plan period.

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IMPHAL, April 9: Kidnapped German Heinrich Wolfgang was today released by his captors through representatives of some NGOs in Itham Moirangpurel area in Imphal East district of Manipur, official sources said, reports PTI. The sources said Wolfgang, kidnapped from Maphou area in Thoubal district on March 23 by activists of the underground Kuki Liberation Army (KLA), was now being kept in a hotel here with security guards. The KLA had earlier demanded Rs one crore for the release of the foreigner but it was not immediately known whether any amount was paid to the ultras to secure the safe...