In its list of 26 candidates for Thursday's assembly elections, 13 are from the Bengali-speaking Muslim community -- a demographic that was at the centre of the original Assam agitation.
The same technologies that enable State forces to monitor and strike insurgent camps are now being mirrored by non-State actors with increasing sophistication.
The proscribed ULFA(I) claimed drone and missile attacks on its camps along the Myanmar border by the Indian Army, resulting in casualties. The Indian Army has not confirmed the incident. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma denied state police involvement.
The Centre on Monday decided to extend the ban imposed on the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang [NSCN-K)] along with all its factions, wings and front organisations for five more years due to its involvement in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India.
A senior police officer said bomb disposal squads have been rushed to all the places mentioned by ULFA-I but there is no report of recovery of any bomb or explosive.
Shah said the ULFA, the oldest insurgent group of Assam, agreed to abjure violence, disband the organisation and join the democratic process.
Pradip Gogoi, arrested on April 8, 1998, is in judicial custody at the central jail in Guwahati, Anup Chetia, who was held in Dhaka on December 21, 1997, is still in detention in Bangladesh. Ideologue Buragohain is now in Tezpur jail, Sonitpur. On December 4, Rajkhowa and Raju Barua were arrested by Border Security Force men.
Two of the three ONGC employees who were abducted allegedly by suspected United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leaders on April 21, have been rescued.
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which trained a batch of Assam's United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants in 1991-92, considered the rebel group's chief Paresh Baruah a prize catch and did not want to offend him even after he was unwilling to take the agency's commands on conducting operations in the northeastern state, claims a new book.
'The Kuki-Zo are aware of this rich resource in their areas and feel the Meitei push for ST status is because of this reason'.
The banned United Liberation Front of Asom struck on the eve of Independence Day on Saturday exploding a bomb at a cinema hall and blowing up an oil pipeline in Dhubri and Dibrugarh districts of Assam, official sources said.
India and Bangladesh on Monday signed a liberalised visa agreement and a landmark extradition treaty that would pave the way for the deportation of jailed United Liberation Front of Asom 'general secretary' Anup Chetia and other wanted criminals.
Sitting MLAs from various political parties in Assam have received extortion demand from the anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom.
At least fifteen persons, including several police personnel, were injured when suspected militants belonging to the anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom detonated a grenade blast near a police check-point in busy Paltan Bazar locality in the heart of Guwahati city at around 8 pm.
After scaling down its original demand for 'sovereignty', the militant United Liberation Front of Asom wants Assam to be declared a 'tribal state' by granting the Scheduled Tribe status to at least six more ethnic communities.
A United Liberation Front of Asom terrorist was on Tuesday killed in an encounter with security forces in Assam's Goalpara district bordering Meghalaya.
The anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom on Saturday flayed Assam's Parliamentary Secretary (home department) Bhupen Borah for the latter's comment castigating the militant group for using 'hired criminals' to trigger bomb/grenade blasts in the state.
The anti-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom on Friday blamed "infighting" within the ruling Congress party in Assam for the violence between Bodos and minorities. The outfit claimed that people in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts are being made "political scapegoat" for the sake of individual ambitions of leaders.
Suspected United Liberation Front of Asom militants detonated an improvised explosive device targeting a Central Reserve Police Force team in Assam's Goalpara district in the wee hours of Thursday but none was hurt.
Various probe commissions have visited Assam and come up with multiple versions about the recent spate of violence, which has claimed 65 lives so far, and why it erupted.
An oil pipeline at Makum in upper Assam's Tinsukia district was on Tuesday damaged in an explosion, for which the United Liberation Front of Asom claimed responsibility. The explosion in the pipeline of the IOC-Assam Oil Division created a 4-ft crater in Pachim Mamarani area, AOD sources said, adding that there was no report of any casualty.
The United Liberation Front of Asom, led by self styled commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, has reportedly established close operational links with Naxal elements to carry out destructive activities in different parts of the country. Highly placed sources told this correspondent that apart from the Inter-Services Intelligence wing of Pakistan, some Chinese elements are also guiding these anti-Indian insurgent outfits in a bid to intensify their 'destabilise India' campaign.
Even as public protests are rife against outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom in eastern Assam district of Tinsukia over deaths of three innocent children in a freak grenade explosion on the afternoon of January 9, in a village near the oil refinery town of Digboi, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday directed the state police chief to gear up vigil and beef security measures.
Two powerful Chinese grenades were recovered from a Guwahati-bound bus and a suspected United Liberation Front of Asom terrorist arrested from Assam's Darrang district on Wednesday.
United Liberation Front of Asom anti-talk faction on Monday accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi of secretly giving away Assam's land to Bangladesh in the recent land swap agreement.
The anti-talks faction of the proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom on Thursday flayed the police and security forces of the "colonial Indian government" for "killing four Assamese youth", branding them as Maoists, at Sadiya in Tinsukia district. In a statement issued to the media, the ULFA stated that failure of the Indian democracy to improve the condition of the masses has led to an upsurge of Maoist movement in the country.
As Assam celebrated Rongali Bihu (spring festival) Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi took the opportunity to make a renewed appeal to armed insurgents groups still at large to come forward for dialogue with the government.
The top leadership of United Liberation Front of Asom on Monday held talks with the government and discussed various aspects of its 'charter of demands'. During the 90-minute meeting, the ULFA delegation led by its 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa held discussions with Union Home Secretary R K Singh and other officials. "It was a very constructive and fruitful discussion. I think we have achieved very good progress in the meeting," Singh said.
Two policemen were injured in a bomb blast, triggerred by the anti-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom, at Doomdooma township in Tinsukia district of Assam.
The United Liberation Front of Asom anti-talk faction, led by 'commander-in-chief' Paresh Barua, on Saturday rejected the charter of demands submitted by the pro-talk faction to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.
In a development that signals the beginning of political dialogue with the United Liberation Front of Asom faction led by its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa in a short time, the pro-talks ULFA group on Tuesday formally declared 'ceasefire' with the security forces.
Security forces have mounted vigil along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh boundary to prevent United Liberation Front of Asom militants' anti-talks faction from sneaking into Assam through its eastern district of Tinsukia.
A high-level delegation of Union Home ministry is in Assam to prepare the ground for starting political negotiations with various militant outfits including the United Liberation Front of Asom, United People's Democratic Solidarity, Dima Halim Daoga-Jewel which have come forward for dialogue to resolve their problems.
The anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom has struck close coordination with Garo National Liberation Army, a Garo tribe terrorist group waging war demanding a separate state for their tribe in Meghalaya, according to a security source.
United Liberation Front of Asom leaders have raised questions about how pro-talks ULFA faction was being allowed to carry weapons, which they were brandishing for furthering their personal business interests and other illegal activities even after they had in principle accepted that weapons will not bring peace to the state.
Believed to have led lavish lives in their heydays, pro-talks United Liberated Front of Asom leaders have now been given Rs 40 lakh by the Centre for daily expenses and to run their families.
A top United Liberation Front of Asom leader along with an Indian journalist and a photographer was detained in Myanmar but the two mediapersons were later released.
Writing under the shadow of the three-decade long insurgency in Assam, litterateur Indira Raisom Goswami wielded the pen not only to highlight the issue of violence but also took the initiative of persuading the banned United Liberation Front of Asom to come to the negotiating table.
Assamese litterateur Indira Raisom Goswami, who had taken the initiative to bring the United Liberation Front of Asom to the negotiating table, on Tuesday passed away at a hospital in Guwahati after a prolonged illness. The condition of 69-year-old Goswami, who suffered a cerebral stroke in February, turned critical on Monday night and she was declared dead at 7:45 am, Guwahati Medical College Hospital Superintendent R Talukdar said.
Maoist activities in Assam are likely to receive the support of the so-called anti-talks faction of the ULFA and if not nipped in the bud will spread to other states of the Northeast with support from other insurgent groups and international powers, warns Col Anil Bhat (Retd).
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