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India-Pakistan

Banned DeM operates freely in Kashmir

2017-06-10

[THENORTHLINES] SRINAGAR: Dukhtaran-e-Milat led by Asiya Andrabi figures among the 36 bully boy groups in the banned list, framed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Despite being banned, the group is operating in the valley and also running the office. The NIA last Saturday raided houses of several Hurriyat leaders in connection with a case of alleged funding received by separatist groups for carrying out subversive activities in the valley. However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... none from the separatist camp except the DeM figures in the banned list of 36 organizations by the NIA for carrying out "unlawful activities". In its official website, the NIA has put the DeM led by Asiya Andrabi under "Schedule I ‐ First Schedule (of the UA (P) Act, 1967) Terrorist Organisations". According to the Act, "Any association can be declared unlawful if the central government is of the opinion that any association is, or has become an unlawful, it may by notification in the official gazette declare such association to be unlawful". DeM is an all women outfit, was founded in 1987, and has been advocating to separate J&K from India. It chief Asiya Andrabi was tossed in the calaboose Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! from her Soura residence on April 27, and booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA). The grounds of PSA order prepared by the police call Asiya a "diehard secessionist" whose "endeavour is to secede the state of J&K from union of India and in order to achieve it she has indulged in anti-national activities and has played an important role in 2008 Amarnath agitation and also in 2010 and 2016 summer unrest by announcing programs/rallies with secessionist elements". In the NIA’s banned list, there are some of the bully boy groups who have or are operating in the valley like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen/ Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Pir Panjal Regiment, Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... /Tahrik-e-Furqan, Jammu and Kashmire Islamic Front, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen/Harkat-ul-Ansar/Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami and Lashkar-E-Taiba/Pasban-E-Ahle Hadis. Besides that there are groups like Babbar Khalsa International, Khalistan Commando Force, Khalistan Zindabad Force, International Sikh Youth Federation, al-Umar-Mujahideen, United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in Assam, People’s Liberation Army (PLA), United National Liberation Front (UNLF), People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL), Manipur People’s Liberation Front (MPLF), All Tripura Tiger Force, National Liberation Front of Tripura, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Students Islamic Movement of India, Deendar Anjuman, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) -People’s War, Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), Al Badr, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, al-Qaeda, Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA), Tamil National Retrieval Troops (TNRT), Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj (ABNES), Communist Party of India (Maoist), Indian Mujahideen A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor... , and Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) which too figures in the banned list.

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India-Pakistan

14 killed in terror attack in Assam

2016-08-07

Follow-up from yesterday. A reminder that not all terrorists are Islamicists. At least 14 people were killed and more than 20 others injured after terrorists opened fire and hurled grenades at a busy market area in the northeastern Indian state of Assam Friday, a top police official said, Xinhua reported. The incident took at the busy weekly Balajan Tiniali market outside the state's Kokrajhar town, around 220 kms from Guwahati, where hundreds of people had gathered for trade. The terrorists came in an auto-rickshaw and started firing indiscrimately at the market. "At least three to four militants attacked the market place in the afternoon. One militant has also been neutralised. We have launched an intensive operation to track down others involved in the terror attack," state police chief Mukesh Sahay told the media. While 14 people lost their lives, those injured have been admitted to nearby hospitals where the condition of some are said to be serious, the official said. Local TV channels reported the area has been cordoned off by the security forces and operations have been launched to track down the militants who are suspected to be hiding in nearby buildings in the area. Some reports said a building adjacent to the market place caught fire in the attack. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was saddened by the attack. "We strongly condemn it. Thoughts and prayers with the bereaved families and those injured." Assam's Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has also condemned the attack and promised action. "Whoever is responsible for this will not be spared. Our policy is zero tolerance for terrorism," he told the media in the national capital. Though no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, police suspect the militants were rebels of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland in Kokrajhar, which has been fighting for a separate homeland for the region's ethnic Bodo people.

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India-Pakistan

Gunmen Kill 13 in Market in India’s Northeast

2016-08-06

Attackers wearing military uniforms shot dead at least 13 people and wounded 15 on Friday in a busy market in a restive area of northeast India. The attack was blamed by the authorities on a regional separatist group. The gunmen fired indiscriminately and threw hand grenades at the crowded weekly market in Kokrajhar, a town 220 km by road west of the state’s commercial capital Guwahati, eyewitnesses said. Kokrajhar lies in the state of Assam. One assailant was killed and security forces were in pursuit of three or four others hiding in a nearby forest, Assam police chief Mukesh Sahay told reporters. Sahay said police had recovered an AK-47 rifle and explosives from the dead gunman, as well as a three-wheeler van the assailants had arrived in. He blamed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) group, a militant outfit fighting for a separate homeland for the indigenous Bodo tribespeople. A senior home ministry official in New Delhi said preliminary reports indicated the attack, one of the deadliest in recent years in a region with a history of sectarian and separatist bloodshed, was carried out by the group. “Police have launched a hunt to trace insurgents hiding near the incident spot. It is a militant attack and we will be sending a team from Delhi to investigate further,” the official said. Assam, a remote and underdeveloped state, has suffered from years of ethnic and tribal insurgencies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won power in a state election in May for the first time after pledging to increase spending in the state. “This attack is intended to destabilize peace in Assam,” said Himanta Biswa Sarma, the state’s finance and health minister and a member of the BJP. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. Violence in Assam and the wider northeast has fallen as more militant groups have called ceasefires, although attacks by one community against another are not uncommon. Militants fighting for a Bodo homeland killed at least 70 people, most of them tea-plantation workers from other parts of India, in a series of attacks in Assam in late 2014. Thousands of people also fled the area after the series of coordinated attacks by the armed rebels.

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India-Pakistan

Tribal armed group kill 40 in NE India

2014-12-24

[Xinhua] At least 40 people, including 10 women and 13 children, were killed by a rebellious tribal gang in different places in the northeastern Indian state of Assam on Tuesday, said government officials. Assam's additional director general of police Pallab Bhattacharya told the media that Bodo tribal gunnies killed at least 40 in at least five villages. He said the corpse count could rise. The attacks were launched by a group called the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which is opposed to peace talks with the government. The blood bathing took place in Kokrajhar and Sonitpur districts of the state as a response to the intensified operation by the security forces, said police. Police Sunday killed two Bodo murderous Moslems in neighboring Chirang district. Some rebel groups are waging an insurgency against the Indian government in the restive northeastern region of the country, where the populations are ethnically different from other parts of India.

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India-Pakistan

India: 23 killed in sectarian attacks

2014-05-03

[The Peninsula] Tribal separatists killed at least 12 Moslems in the northeastern state of Assam yesterday, taking the toll to 23 following two days of deadly carnage, police said. "Some 10 heavily armed gunnies went on a rampage, torching about 20 houses and killing at least 12 people," police inspector general S N Singh said. The attack was reported in Narayanguri village in Baksa district, some 200 kilometres west of Assam's main city of Guwahati. On Thursday night rebels had killed three villagers in the same district and eight more in neighbouring Kokrajhar, opening fire on the victims as they slept in their homes. The attacks prompted security forces to launch a massive hunt for the guerillas. An indefinite curfew has been imposed in the violence-torn districts, with shoot-at-sight orders given to police, Singh said. India's Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde spoke to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi over phone, assuring him of every kind of help to deal with the situation. The victims of the attacks were Moslem migrants who have been locked in staggered land disputes with indigenous Bodo tribes in the tea-growing state that borders Bhutan and Bangladesh. The attacks come as India votes in a multi-phased general election that began on April 7. Voting in Assam has ended, with April 24 the last day of polling. Police blamed the attacks on the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland, which has been demanding a separate homeland for decades. Survivors of Thursday's attack in Kokrajhar district described how a group of around 20 masked gunnies had carried out the killings late on Thursday night. "We were asleep when gunnies barged into our home and sprayed bullets, killing my elderly mother, my wife and my four-year-old daughter," Siraj Ali told a local TV channel. "I don't have anyone left in my family now," Ali added. Seventeen people were killed in festivities in the same region in January and thousands of others fled their homes for fear of further attacks.

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India-Pakistan

Rebels kill 14 Hindi-speaking people in India

2010-11-09

[Emirates 24/7] Tribal separatists in northeast India rubbed out at least 14 people in three attacks on Monday, police said, adding that the targets were Hindi-speakers. The outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) fired at a passenger bus in Sonitpur district, about 250km north of Assam's main city Guwahati, killing eight passengers. "All those killed were Hindi-speaking people hailing from eastern state of Bihar and working as government employees," said Assam's police chief Shankar Baruah. In another incident five people, including a woman, were killed after NDFB gunnies opened fire near Belseri village, also in Sonitpur district. In the third attack a Hindi-speaker was killed in Nalbari district in western Assam. Tension has simmered for years in Assam, with rebels and local leaders complaining that Hindi-speaking migrants from the northern Ganges plain are changing the demographics of the state and taking local jobs. In 2000 several separatist groups carried out a campaign against Hindi-speaking people, killing 150 of them.

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Bangladesh

ULFA commander Paresh Barua arrested, or not

2010-05-21

It's B'desh so no one knows a thing ... Paresh Barua, commander-in-chief of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), has been arrested by th e Bangladesh authorities, reports expressbuzz.com of India, reports UNB. The dreaded ULFA leader was apprehended by the Bangladesh security agencies about 12 days ago when he was crossing over to Bangladesh via Myan-mar border after visiting Chinese Yunnan province. Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder pleaded ignorance about the arrest of Paresh Barua. "I''m not aware of it," he told UNB this evening. Bangladesh officials had been shy of confirming the arrest and handing over to India the ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and three of his comrades early this year, and National Democratic Front of Bodoland chairman Ranjan Daimary couple of months ago. "We are expecting Bangladesh to hand him over to us soon once they finish interrogating him," sources told Express. An IANS report from Guwahati, Assam, said Indian Home Secretary G K Pillai pleaded ignorance about the arrest of ULFA Commander. "We have no such reports," he said in response to an SMS about the Express report. Television channels in Assam and some newspapers on Thursday reported that ULFA's elusive commander-in-chief was arrested in Bangladesh about a fortnight ago upon his return from China. "At a time when Bangladesh is stepping up its heat on ULFA and NDFB, a seasoned separatist leader like Paresh Barua would never enter Bangladesh and get himself captured," a central intelligence official said. "It is nothing but a rumour."

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India-Pakistan

Two Bodo Militants Gunned Down in Assam

2009-12-26

26 December 2009 GUWAHATI - Two dreaded tribal separatists were killed on Friday in Assam, bringing to four the number of militants gunned down since Thursday in the stepped up offensive against the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). A police spokesperson said a group of three armed NDFB militants challenged a security patrol early on Friday near Rangapara in Sonitpur district. And I thought it was tough to find upazailas on a map ... Well sure, silly, if you're looking on a map. They found it in the real world. There all one need do is ask a p'liceman for directions. "The NDFB rebels opened fire at the security team and that led to the encounter in which two militants were killed. The third managed to escape under cover of the early morning fog," a senior police official said. A cache of weapons and explosives was recovered from the dead militants. "The NDFB group was in the area for an extortion drive when security forces challenged them," the official said. Two other NDFB rebels were killed in separate encounters with security forces in the same district on Thursday. So are these 'challenges' or 'cross-fires'? We shall have to await the newspaper reports to find out. School yourself to patience, my dear.

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India-Pakistan

Bomb kills four in Assam

2009-12-11

[Dawn] A bomb at a crowded marketplace killed four people on Thursday in India's insurgency-racked northeastern state of Assam, police said. The blast ripped through the market near a police station and army base camp in the town of Missamari, around 220 kilometres (140 miles) north of Assam's main city Guwahati. Witnesses and police officials said four people died on the spot and 17 others were injured, six critically. Police blamed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) - a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland for Assam's Bodo tribe - for the attack. 'We strongly suspect the hand of the NDFB in the blast as the area is a stronghold of the outfit,' an intelligence official told AFP. The NDFB was blamed for a series of explosions in 2008 which killed about 100 people and injured hundreds more.

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Bangladesh

Unsigned statement of northeast Indian groups

2009-12-10

[Bangla Daily Star] The Daily Star last night received an unsigned statement claimed to have been issued by a few organisations, which are carrying out insurgency in the Northeastern states of India. In the statement they expressed being hurt by the arrest of Ulfa Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and other leaders of the organisation. In the statement, the claimed organisations, namely Manipur People's Liberation Front (MPLF), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), National Liberation Front of Twipra (NLFT), Tripura People's Democratic Front (TPDF) and United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), have concluded that Rajkhowa was arrested in Bangladesh and as such they are hurt and disappointed. However, Bangladesh Home Minister Sahara Khatun earlier personally denied the Ulfa chairman's arrest in Bangladesh. "No, no! Certainly not!" It may be mentioned that the statement received through e-mail does not bear either the letterhead of any organisation or signature of anyone from the organisations. Claiming themselves as "liberation forces", the organisations said they would emphasis that they should not commit any such act that may be construed as open infringement upon the sovereignty of their neighbouring countries and hurt sentiments of the people concerned.

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Bangladesh

Arrested Ulfa chief taken to Delhi

2009-12-04

[Bangla Daily Star] Indian separatist group United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa has been taken to Delhi from Tripura where he surrendered to the security forces, report BBC News and Indian media. Rajkhowa's wife Kaberi Kachari and their two sons were put under house arrest in Dhaka, the media reports add. Indian daily the Hindustan Times reports that the Ulfa chief was pushed back on Wednesday by the Bangladesh authorities into Tripura and later flown to New Delhi yesterday evening. Two other top Ulfa leaders -- Chitrabon Hazarika and Sasha Choudhury -- were detained in Bangladesh last month and subsequently handed over to India, while Ulfa general secretary Anup Chetia is confined in Bangladesh jail since 1998. BBC News Online adds: There are unconfirmed reports that the two other rebel leaders -- chairman of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) Ranjan Daimary and chairman of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) Biswamohan Debbarma -- have also been held elsewhere in Bangladesh. India's home ministry has not confirmed the reports of the arrests in Bangladesh. Quoting Indian government sources, the CNN-IBN website says the Centre is considering giving safe passage to Rajkhowa to facilitate the peace talks. It adds Ulfa chairman Rajkhowa and its publicity secretary Apurba Borua were flown into New Delhi in a special flight of the Border Security Force, while Rajkhowa's wife and two sons have also been reportedly kept under house arrest in Uttara in Dhaka. Forty-two bank accounts held by Rajkhowa in a Dhaka bank were frozen in March. The accounts held deposits worth Rs 3,900 crore, most of which was extortion money. Sources say Rajkhowa held the accounts under the name of Arbinda Ray and the accounts were frozen two months after Sheikh Hasina came to power in Bangladesh. Hasina government is also putting pressure on him for talks with India.

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India-Pakistan

Landmine blast kills colonel in Assam

2009-07-14

Guwahati: An army colonel and his driver were killed by a landmine in the northeastern state of Assam yesterday, officials said. A defence spokesman said the army vehicle hit the mine near the Balipara reserve forests in Sonitpur district, 210km north of the state's main city Guwahati. "The impact of the landmine was so severe that the vehicle blew up, killing the colonel and his driver on the spot," an army commander said. "The colonel was on his way to his base at Tenga in adjoining Arunachal Pradesh, bordering China, when the attack took place," the official said. Army and police teams have cordoned off the area and launched a hunt. Police blame the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) for the attack. Police said militants in the restive state were trying to stage violent attacks ahead of India's Independence Day on August 15. The NDFB is a rebel group fighting for a separate homeland for the Bodo tribe in Assam since 1996, although it had agreed to a ceasefire with the Indian government since 2005. State authorities have often accused the group of violating the truce and indulging in violence. India's northeast, which shares borders with China, Myanmar and Bangladesh, is a volatile region where nearly 40 separatist, tribal or leftist groups are active in five states. More than 15,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the region in the past decade.

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