Imphal, February 26: The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in connection with raping of one Meinam Bina Devi of Luwang-shangbam Matai Mamang Leikai by a personnel of 25 Assam Rifles on October 6, 2001 has been moved before the Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court today. The PIL is being filed jointly by Human Rights Alert represented by its executive director Babloo Loitongbam and Human Rights Law Network (Manipur Unit) represented by its coordinator Nonibala Devi Yengkhom against deprivation of bodily integrity and invasion of sexual freedom of the victim. Meihoubam Rakesh, the counsel...

AGARTALA, Feb 26 — Barring some incidents in rural polling stations, the Tripura polls today were by and large peaceful. The poll began at 7 am and by 11 am in many of the urban seats polling recorded about 50 per cent. As many as 19,31,465 voters cast their votes upto 4 pm to select their representatives to the 60-member Assembly from 254 candidates belonging to 14 political parties and Independents.

Women voters keen to cast their votes before starting their house works were seen in long serpentine queues from early morning. The male voters, however, came with the sun rising above the head...

KOHIMA, Feb 26 — Unprecedented security blanket was thrown across Nagaland with deployment over 45,000 police, para-military and army personnel to ensure peaceful conduct of assembly election today amidst the shadow of large-scale intimidation and threats to voters, reports PTI. To pre-empt any untoward incident, the state government on Monday clamped night curfew in the entire state for two days and mobilised all resources for a free and fair poll despite reports of initimidation, threats and kidnapping of village elders being received by the CEO office at Kohima from various parts of the...

SHILLONG, Feb 26 — Sluggish polling in the election to the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly in the morning today indicated a possible low polling in the state this time. According to state election authorities, after three hours of polling at 10 am, only 20 per cent of the nearly 12 lakh voters have exercised their franchise.

Several observers attributed the low turn-out to the disenchantment of the voters. The reasons are not far to see as historically, political instability has dogged the state since its birth. The last Assembly had witnessed a record six governments in the space of five years...

Guwahati, Feb. 25: The mortar attack on the Indian Air Force base in Borjhar here on Sunday has sparked off a blame game between New Delhi and Dispur which has all but pushed the security threat into the background. A day after defence minister George Fernandes and the Eastern Air Command blamed Dispur for the attack, the latter returned the fire with equal gusto by holding the air force responsible for the security breach.

Besides seeking a detailed report on the incident from the Eastern Air Command, Fernandes said in Shillong yesterday that if needed, he would seek an explanation from the...