News

Agartala, Feb. 3: A group of Borok National Council of Tripura militants last night abducted 16 non-tribals from Emrapasha area under Kumarghat police station of north Tripura district. Four of the hostages managed to escape from near the Bangladesh border.

Already, 37 persons have been killed in militancy-related violence this year in the run-up to the February 26 Assembly elections.

Police sources said members of jatra party (folk theatre group) were rehearsing a play in a house at Emrapasha at 11 pm when a group of 15 armed militants abducted all of them. They have been identified as...

SHILLONG, Feb 3 ? The annual pilgrimage to the sacred U Lum Sohpetbneng peak in Umiam, about 20 kms from here was organised today drawing thousands of followers of the Khasi traditional faith from all parts of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. The day-long pilgrimage, was organised by the Seng Khasi, the spiritual and cultural custodian of the ?Hynniewtrep? people comprising the Khasi and Jaintia races. The Hynniewtrep community fondly regards the Sohpetbneng peak as the trusted divine sentinel, jealously guarding the spiritual belief, the territorial integrity and cultural heritage of the Khasi...

Shillong, Feb. 3: Setting speculation at rest, Meghalaya chief minister F.A. Khonglam today applied for a ticket from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the February 26 Assembly elections.

Khonglam will contest from the 29 Sohra Legislative Assembly constituency from where he had won the previous election as an Independent.

With Khonglam finally applying for the party ticket, the NCP now has only three seats ? Sohryngkham, Mawlai and Jaiaw ? free. The party will now contest 56 of the 60 seats, having allotted the Shella constituency to Mathew M. Mawdakat.

?I will file nomination...

AIZAWL, Feb 3 ? The number of voters in Mizoram has risen to 505584 from the previous year?s total of 481460 registering an increase of 5.01 per cent, reports PTI.

State election office sources here said the increase in the number of voters was recorded after a special summary revision of Mizoram electoral rolls. The highest increase is registered in Aizawl West-ll (ST) reserved constituency where the increase is 15.59 per cent followed by Tlabung reserved constituency near the Bangladesh border which registered an increase of 13.42 per cent.

However, four Assembly constituencies namely...

GUWAHATI, Feb 3 ? The State Cabinet today decided to offer two options to the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) to resolve the stalemate over reservation of seats in the proposed Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).

A highly-placed source informed that the State Cabinet today, in its bid to remove the stalemate vis-a-vis creation of the BTC, resolved that the BLT should accept anyone of the two options made available to them to facilitate creation of the BTC. The two options on seat reservation in the BTC being offered to the BLT are : 30 seats for tribals and 10 seats for non-tribals or 30 seats...