Re: What’s there to talk? Indian ruler of Assam goes mad.
Police kill at least 10 protesters.
In keeping with the arbitrary and violent manner that Indian security forces typically respond to protests in the country’s north-east, police shot and killed at least 10 villagers and wounded more than 20 others during a February 10 protest in the state of Assam. The demonstrators were demanding punishment of Indian Army personnel responsible for the murder of a young villager who had been taken away from his house by army personnel.
February 14: Jawans accused of rape.
Guwahati: Tripura police have registered a case of an alleged gang rape of a woman by three jawans of Assam Rifles in Dhalai district.
Nepal Das, Superintendent of Police, Police Control, Agartala, told The Hindu that a case had been registered at Chamanu police station in Dhalali district following a complaint by a woman alleging that she was raped by three jawans of 36 Assam Rifles deployed in counter insurgency duties in the area.
Mr. Das said complainant had already been medically examined and the report was still awaited to ascertain the veracity of her complaint.
February 17: Indian TV channels blacked out in Assam
Guwahati: Three major national channels - Zee News, Aaj Tak and Star News - were Friday blacked out in Assam by cable TV operators for 48 hours for allegedly failing to project the state and the North East in the right perspective.
The operators also threatened to “close down the so-called national channels if they don’t see the seriousness of the situation”.
The three news channels went off the TV screen from 6 am on Friday and will remain blocked till 6 am on Sunday, according to Assam Cable TV Operators’ Confederation and the Greater Guwahati Cable TV Operators Association presidents Md Iqbal Ahmed and Rajesh Sarma.
They alleged that important happenings and crucial issues of the region were rarely highlighted by the channels, while minor matters in other states were repeatedly telecast.
The cable operators were agitated that the national channels, “despite running in the region for a long time and earning revenue through advertisements failed to project the Kakopathar firing incident nationally”.
“Even a road accident will be repeatedly shown if it happens in the metros, but most of the burning issues of Assam and the North East hardly ever find any mention in these news channels,” Ahmed and Sarma alleged. At least nine persons were killed in police firing on February 10 at Kakopathar in Tinsukia district on a mob protesting against the death of a villager, Ajit Mahanta, in army custody.
February 18: Secret killings.
“The modus ope***** resorted to by the Centre and Assam Government was that with the help of SULFA, the local police and the Army prepared the list of family members and relatives of suspicious members of ULFA and, thereafter, they were liquidated,” the PIL claimed adding that even the bureaucrats and MLAs of ruling party assisted the government.
The NGO further claimed that Mahanta, on January 20 in his party meeting, admitted that secret killings were carried during the year 1998 to 2001 under the instructions of Home Ministry.
February 19: Withdraw the army.
NEW DELHI: Jnanpeeth award winning Assamese writer Indira Goswami, who has been mediating between the Centre and banned outfit ULFA, has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting the withdrawal of Army from Assam to help carry forward the ongoing peace process.
Goswami, a member of the ULFA-selected Peoples Consultative Group, which had two rounds of peace talks with the government, including one with the Prime Minister, in her letter apprised Singh about the prevailing situation in Upper Assam where eight people were killed in police firing and one in alleged Army custody.
“I humbly request you to kindly consider the removal of the security forces from the affected areas to ease the prevailing tension. I sincerely believe that such a step would help us to carry forward the peace process towards a positive end,” Goswami said in her letter which she sent on Saturday.
She said that such a move would be considered a “great gesture” from the government for the people of Assam.
“The ongoing peace process is a historical step. People of Assam would remain grateful to you and your government,” Goswami said in her letter.
February 28](UAE Latest News, Breaking News, Local News | Khaleej Times): It is Asom now.
GUWAHATI, India - The government in India’s restive Assam has renamed the state** Asom**, saying Assam was the corrupt version of its original name used by British colonial rulers.
“We have decided to revert back to Asom which was used by the indigenous people instead of Assam, a corrupt version left by the Britishers,” state government spokesman Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday.
Assam is in India’s remote northeast and was ruled by the indigenous Ahoms for six centuries from 1228. Ahom means ”uneven” as the region has many hills.
The original name came from the Ahom dynasty which ruled before the British occupied the state more than 150 years ago and set up tea gardens and oil refineries.
In the past 26 years, thousands of people have died in separatist violence in the state, linked to the rest of India only by a tiny strip of land.
The powerful rebel group, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) – fighting for independence for the the state of 26 million people – has been writing the spelling of “Assam” as “Asom” since the outfit was formed in 1979.
In the past decade, several Indian cities have been renamed to reflect local cultures, such as Bombay to Mumbai, Madras to Chennai and Calcutta to Kolkata.
March 3](http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7454_1641327,0008000500010000.htm): Jawans assault women.
An FIR was filed against some Army personnel for allegedly assaulting two women in Tezpur town of Assam’s Sonitpur district.
According to official sources, a woman owner of a weaving shop Nelima Bora filed the FIR on Thursday alleging that last month an Army Major, his wife and some jawans had ordered for a suit in the shop.
Irked over late delivery, they had ransacked the shop on Wednesday. Two women weavers who were present in the shop were also assaulted, she alleged.
The Sonitpur district administration has ordered an enquiry into the incident.
The Army when contacted denied involvement in the incident.
March 5](http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060306/asp/nation/story_5931099.asp): Jawans torture youth.
Jorhat, The Assam Rifles found itself embroiled in another controversy when a youth who was allegedly picked up by the paramilitary force returned home this morning with tell-tale signs of torture in custody.
Madhurjya Gogoi said a team of soldiers “kidnapped” him along with another youth, Manjit Sahu, from near the Bhogdoi bridge in Jorhat on February 28.