New Delhi, January 10: Striking a more realistic note during their talks with Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani today, Naga insurgent group NSCN (I-M) leaders Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah made it clear that they had not given up on their main demands.

Though none of the prickly issues were taken up during the hour-long ‘‘warm’’ meeting, the two leaders expressed concern about the forthcoming elections in Nagaland, saying that they may not be free and fair, and that they would not be participating in them.

Advani, however, assured them, giving them the example of Jammu and Kashmir....

New Delhi, Jan. 10: The first meeting between deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and the NSCN (I-M) brass was warm and cordial, with the visitors again complimenting the sincerity of the Centre’s efforts to understand and resolve the Naga problem. “We were warmly welcomed by the deputy Prime Minister,” NSCN (I-M) chairman Isak Chisi Swu said after calling on Advani in North Blo ck along with secretary-general Thuingaleng Muivah.

Although both sides were tight-lipped on the issues discussed, the NSCN (I-M) leaders clearly indicated the broad framework on which the substantive talks would revolve...

Imphal, Jan. 10: The gunbattle between guerrillas of the Manipur People’s Liberation Front (MPLF) and jawans of the Border Security Force continued for the third day today in Sajik Tampak area of Manipur’s Chandel district, bordering Myanmar. In yet another show of firepower, the MPLF last night launched simultaneous attacks on security forces at eight separate places in Manipur. Though the attacks did not result in any casualty, they did trigger confusion among law-enforcing agencies.

The rebels attacked Assam Rifles outposts at three places — Keirak, Kongjom and Wabagai — in Thoubal...

Agartala, Jan. 10: The latest round of Naga talks in New Delhi has already led to demands for similar parleys with outfits in Tripura, but these are mostly from poll-bound political parties rather than the militants themselves. While the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) has blamed the ruling Left Front for lacking a will to end insurgency, the party in power said there was little it could do, given the fact that the banned outfits had spurned past offers.

The Opposition INPT, which reportedly has links with the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), has demanded...

GUWAHATI, Jan 9 — Members of the Assam Special Reserve Force (ASRF) have threatened to mutiny unless the ‘discrimination’ meted out to the personnel is stopped. “We won’t be responsible for the consequences,” advisor to the ASRF Bn Unnayan Samity Anukul Sinha warned today. Addressing the press here this morning along with Samity general secretary Taser Ali Ahmed and assistant general secretary Kulen Gohain, Sinha said that the personnel of the ASRF’s two battalions, raised in 1984, had been enjoying all the benefits as the Assam Police battalions with Assam Rifles scales as long as IPS and APS...