Violence has been increasing recently in this war torn state.
**Blast rocks Assam ahead of PM’s visit, no injuries **
On the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Assam on Monday, ULFA militants on Sunday made an attempt to blow up an IOC crude oil pipeline in Chirang district damaging it partially, police said. However, no one was injured in the blast. The blast took place at around 7 pm at Palasguri village under Dhaligaon police station, they said adding the fire was put off immediately and repair works on the pipeline were on for restoring crude oil supply to Bongaigaon refinery. The Prime Minister would be visiting Assam from tomorrow for two days and is scheduled to visit Chirang’s neighbouring district of Kokrajhar.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7454_1599366,000800050006.htm
2 Assam Rifles jawans killed in encounter
Two Assam Rifles jawans and one suspected People’s Liberation Army (PLA) militants were killed in an encounter at Khoibu Maring village in Manipur’s Chandel district, police said on Sunday. Armed militants attacked the 32nd Assam Rifles patroling party at Khoibu Maring village bordering Myanmar at about 6.30 pm on Saturday. The AR jawans returned the fire. In the encounter that lasted about one hour, two AR jawans and one suspected PLA militants were killed, police said. The other militants escaped to the nearby hills taking advantage of the darkness, the police added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1372840.cms
Re: Blast rocks Assam ahead of Indian PM’s visit, soldiers killed
**Rebels threaten India oil company **
India’s state-run oil company ONGC says separatists have demanded it pay them more than $1m or stop operations in the north-eastern state of Assam. ONGC said the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) was asking for 5bn rupees ($1.13m) “without much delay”. ONGC has several oilfields and gas exploitation centres in Assam, India’s third largest oil-producing state. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the rebels must end extortion if they wanted peace efforts to succeed. “If they want the peace process in Assam to continue, they must understand there’s no scope for extortion, killing or any kind of violence,” he told a news conference in the Assam capital, Guwahati. “We have received this demand and we are shocked,” said company chairman Subir Raha. Ulfa has yet to say whether it made the demand. Last week a bomb blast damaged an oil pipeline in Assam’s western district of Bongaigaon, badly damaging a pipeline carrying crude to an oil refinery. The blast happened barely a few hours before Prime Minister Singh laid the foundation stone for a thermal power station in Bongaigaon. Ulfa is one of the most powerful of nearly a dozen separatist groups fighting Indian security forces in the north-east.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4617266.stm