BADARPUR, April 9 – “The BG construction work of Silchar-Badarpur-Lumding hill section of the Northeast Frontier Railway will be completed within the year 2007, positively. Although this hill section is beset with insurgency problems, the BG construction work of the Lumding-Badarpur hill section is going on in full swing at present. There is no problem of money for this work. This year in the Budget, Rs 75 crore has been sanctioned for the BG implementation,” stated NF Railway general manager (GM) Vipen Nanda here while he was talking with the newspersons at Badarpur Railway Station after...

GUWAHATI, April 9 – A 48-hour curfew has been clamped in the entire North-Cachar Hills district from 1 pm today in view of the deteriorating law and order situation in the district. Earlier curfew was clamped in the district from 6 pm yesterday to 5 am today. But the administration again clamped curfew following arson in Retzol area today. The release said that all out efforts are being made by the district administration to bring the situation under control and all educational institutions in the district have been closed down, official sources said.

GUWAHATI, April 9 — “People must be laughing at our products,” says the president of the Association of Tour Operators of North East India (ATONEI) Lata Umrey, a sad but candid admission that the North East has not yet matured as a favoured destination for tourists. This despite the fact that the region has to offer almost anything that a tourist may possible want. The problems are many.

It is to address these issues that the ATONEI, along with the North Eastern Council (NEC) is hosting a two-day North East Tourism Summit in Shillong from tomorrow. Tourism in the North East as a “gateway to...

Silchar, April 9: A 48-hour curfew was today clamped in North Cachar Hills district of Assam following sporadic clashes during a 12-hour bandh called by the All-Dimasa Students’ Union (ADSU) in protest against the massacre by Hmar militants on March 31.

District magistrate Syed Iftiqar Hussain described the curfew, which took effect at 1 pm, as “a precautionary step to prevent breach of peace and tranquillity”.

Official sources in Haflong, the district headquarters, said they had received reports of Dimasas torching 20 Hmar huts in Retzawl, Mahur and Umrangshu. It is not known if there were...

German social worker Heinrich Wolfgang was released today after 17 days in captivity by the Kuki Liberation Army, a militant outfit in Manipur. The peace trainer was abducted on March 23 while on an inspection tour of the state. In this first person account to The Telegraph, he rues that he has missed the action in Iraq but is obviously happy to be able to communicate with his family now that his ordeal is over.

The boys told me only this morning that I would be freed. What better gift could I have asked for on my 48th birthday?

I remember that we were returning to the capital city on March...