Imphal, Jan. 21: The BSF today rescued eight persons, including senior officials of the Food Corporation of India, after a shootout with gunmen on the Imphal-Moreh road while they were speeding towards the Indo-Myanmar border town.

Official sources said nine persons were abducted by unidentified men while they were on their way to Moreh in two jeeps to inspect the site for the construction of a food and civil supplies godown. The gunmen intercepted the vehicles at Khongkham, 4 km from Moreh, at 10.30 am.

On receiving information about the abduction, the BSF post at Khongkhang rushed its...

Guwahati/Dibrugarh, Jan. 21: The Ulfa today claimed to have killed 15 soldiers and injured several others in a pre-dawn attack on a camp housing a platoon of 6 Jat regiment in Daisajan tea estate under Doomdooma police station in Tinsukia district. A person, claiming to be Ulfa chief Paresh Barua, called up The Telegraph and claimed that a group of 30 armed cadre of the outfit attacked the army platoon. Though army officials based in Laipuli in Tinsukia district admitted that the attack took place, they said that there were no casualties.

Kohima, Jan. 21: Making its first utterances on the high-profile Centre-NSCN (I-M) talks, the ?federal government of Nagaland? ? which represents the Naga National Council ? today said it was willing to start talks with the Centre if the latter showed ?sincerity?.

Much in the same breath, it said violence in Nagaland would continue if ?India continued to talk to people who are out of the family?.

The family referred to was legendary Naga insurgent leader A.Z. Phizo?s lineage.

Focusing his address on the plebiscite of 1951 and the NNC?s stand that Nagaland ?is in an independent position...

Jorhat, Jan. 21: Thirteen poachers surrendered before chief minister Tarun Gogoi today to mark the beginning of what is dubbed as the first step towards protection of birds in Assam.

The poachers, who earned their livelihood by catching migratory birds and selling them in nearby markets, pledged before the chief minister that they would not catch birds in the future. The new awakening was witnessed at the inaugural ceremony of the bird festival on the bank of the Brahmaputra at Bahona on the outskirts of Jorhat.

What convinced the poachers to give up their ways was a 100-metre-long...

AGARTALA, Jan 20? Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh on Thursday night said here that all measures had been ensured to conduct free and fair polls in the state on February 26 next. Addressing a press conference at Circuit House here last night the CEC, flanked by his Election Commissioners T S Krishnamurthy and B B Tandon said, the poll process is going on, smoothly and the election will be conducted in free and fair manner. The CEC also expressed hope that the Central Government would send additional paramilitary force for the Tripura polls. ?The Ministry of Home Affairs is very...