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01/04/2009: "Naga insurgents force truck detour morungexpress"



Naga insurgents force truck detour morungexpress

Imphal : Altogether 17 trucks that were to collect gas from Assam were stopped at a Maram area in Senapati district and forced to return to Imphal by Naga militants. Official sources said Saturday that the reason was for ‘non-payment of demand money’. Sources said in all, 19 trucks left for the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant at Awang Sekmai near Imphal on Saturday to collect gas from Assam but they were stopped by the militants who said to be cadres of the outfit NSCN-IM. While the first two trucks crossed the Manipur-Nagaland border at Mao, the drivers of the remaining trucks were told that there was no “agreement” between the government and NSCN-IM ‘over the issue’. The militants forced the trucks to return to Imphal, sources said. They said the NSCN-IM had demanded Rs 15 lakh as “godown tax” from the bottling plant. Sources said the state government had earlier informed the Dimapur-based cease fire monitoring centre (CFMC) to pressurize NSCN-IM as the outfit was having ‘peace’ talks with the central government for the past ten years. Meanwhile, sources in the bottling plant said they would stop distributing cooking gas cylinders to customers as there was no gas at the plant.
Lotha Hoho Dimapur condemns morungexpress
Dimapur, January 3 (MExN): The Lotha Hoho Dimapur has vehemently condemned the attempt made on the life of one Chibenthung Lotha, Deputy Kilongser of ‘NSCN’, by some unidentified miscreants on December 27, 2008. Y K Ovung, Chairman of LHD, in a press release stated, “At this outset the Hoho also calls upon all right thinking citizens to condemn such cowardly and barbaric act.”

Picturesque Lungwa attracts tourists Nagarealm.com
When you talk of border or boundary, the immediate perception in our mind is that it would prohibit our movement beyond an area. But in the case of residents of Lungwa village in Nagaland's Mon district bordering Myanmar's Saigang division, it is not so as the village has a different tale.

Nearly 5000 villagers of Lungwa, whose occupation is cultivation, hardly recognises border or boundary as there is no restriction to their movement not so speak of agricultural activities across the borders. Interestingly, the international boundary line between Myanmar and India that passes in the middle portion of the village also divides the village chief’s (Angh) huge hut.

"We've a saying that our Chief dines in India and sleeps in Myanmar in his own house as the boundary line demarcates his kitchen and bedroom," Aching Konyak, a village youth said. There was no proper administration in Konyak inhabited areas of Nagaland till 1963. It came only after the two countries drew the international boundary that demarcates Konyaks of Nagaland and Myanmar not to speak of those in Arunachal Pradesh's Tirap and Chanlang districts.

In spite of having the border pillars, including the one BP 154 which was erected way back in 1970-71 and still stands tall atop Lungwa range, the villagers of this Konyak village do not bother about it as they have their relatives across the border since time immemorial. Many villagers visit Pangmei village, border town in Myanmar, for business purposes daily. "Even two of my sons were serving in Myanmar army," Chief Loknang, who converted to Christianity in 1984, told a visiting journalists team in Konyak dialect recently.

However, the village gets regular financial help from the Nagaland government for various developments, particularly the agricultural activities, the husband of 10 wives and father of 20 children narrated. Moreover, the villagers have a good relationship with the personnel of 37 Assam Rifles posted in Lungwa village to guard the border as well as the Myanmar army. Echoing a similar feeling, Minphong Konyak, joint secretary of Konyak Union said, "We don't recognize particular boundaries here," adding ‘it would be good, if there are no border pillars’.

The present Nagaland has the least number of Konyak population comparing to those in Myanmar, he observed and added that the total population of Konyak tribes in Indo-Myanmar region would be over 20 lakhs. For its picturesque view located at the tri-junction of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar, Lungwa attracts many tourists, both domestic and international, every year. Konyaks are artisans by birth and their wood carving skills could be make out easily after seeing their traditional ornaments and other structures in the village particularly in Chief's palace.

In fact these villagers are dreaming of having a border trade centre through their village with Myanmar after the government once made an announcement in this regard in the line of Moreh in Manipur sector of the Indo-Myanmar international boundary. "Of course they (government officials) visited our village sometime ago, but there's nothing in the village as of now" Aching lamented. Though the village is located in Nagaland, there's no proper motor-able road from Kohima to reach the village. As a result, the villagers are depending on Assam roads. Likewise those who wish to visit Lungwa need to drive through highways in Assam to reach the destinatio. [Sobhapati Samom, EMN]

Daimary issues warning OUR CORRESPONDENT The Telegraph
Kokrajhar, Jan. 3: Accusing the government of walking away from the ceasefire, the Ranjan Daimary-led faction of the NDFB today warned of renewing its war for the liberation of Bodos.
In a statement issued this afternoon, Daimary also described his expulsion from the NDFB by the B. Sungthagra-led faction as “ridiculous”.
“After waging a war for 18 years for the legitimate rights of the Bodo people when almost all the leaders were either in jail or missing, I declared the ceasefire on October 4, 2004, to solve the Indo-Bodoland issue peacefully and democratically. As requested by the Government of India, the proposed agenda to initiate the talks was also submitted to the Centre on May 1, 2008. But it is unfortunate that instead of initiating the talks, the Government of India outright rejected the proposed agenda and started dictating terms to the NDFB. Therefore, who is to blame for ending the ceasefire and the failure of the talks? Now the NDFB shall have no other option but to renew the war for the liberation of Bodoland,” the statement said.
Daimary said after he had already stated that he was not the president of those who have capitulated on the ideology and principles of the NDFB and adopted a resolution to take part in Indian elections, his expulsion by the group was “nothing but ridiculous”.
“Those who have betrayed the national principle and deviated from the ideology and principle of the NDFB do not have any moral authority to talk about my expulsion,” the statement said.
Daimary said that Sungthagra, who had just come out of jail after six years, and whose hands are stained with blood of innocent people, did not have the moral authority to speak of humanity and rights violation.
Masterminds identified - Seven-member Ulfa group behind blasts, say cops A STAFF REPORTER The Telegraph


Assam Governor Shiv Charan Mathur interacts with a blast victim at MMC Hospital in Guwahati on Saturday. Picture by Eastern Projections
Guwahati/Kokrajhar, Jan. 3: A seven-member group of Ulfa militants, who entered the city before December 29, had carried out the January 1 serial blasts in Guwahati, police sources claimed today.
The sources claimed that the newly recruited cadres were given a 15 to 20-day crash course in handling explosives before they entered the city from lower Assam to carry out several blasts on New Year’s eve. The group, however, failed to plant the bombs where they wanted because of tight security.
The sources claimed that the masterminds behind these blasts were two leaders of Ulfa’s 709 battalion, Akash Thapa and Amrit Baruah, who were at present taking shelter along the Indo-Bhutan border.
The police have also identified two bombers, Pranjal Deka and Sailen Das, and arrested nine persons, most of whom have either links with militants or had provided shelter to them.
Pranjal, the main suspect, used to stay in the house of Dharani Das in Roopnagar as a tenant. City police had released Pranjal’s photograph and arrested Das yesterday. Both Pranjal and Das hail from Dwarkuchi village in Baksa district. Sailen, the second bomber identified, also comes from a lower Assam village.
The police are still clueless about the other five bombers.
Pranjal’s alleged involvement in the blasts has left Dwarkuchi shocked. After seeing his photograph flashed in newspapers and TV channels, the villagers said it was difficult to believe that a simple boy like him could be involved in the blasts.
“It is hard to believe that Pranjal could be involved in the bomb blasts or have any connection with Ulfa. He is from a very poor family,” said Nanda Deka, a villager. Another villager said Ulfa could have lured Pranjal with money. The villagers last saw him on Thursday morning.
Pranjal, the eldest son of a poor farmer couple, Putul and Riju Deka, had dropped out of school after Class VII because of financial constraints. He has two sisters, aged 14 and 12, and two brothers, aged 6 and 4.
Baksa superintendent of police P.K. Dutta said Pranjal’s name was not in the administration’s list of Ulfa rebels.
In a related development, forensic experts have revealed that “small quantity of TNT” was used in all the three blasts on Thursday, pointing fingers at home-grown outfits which have used the same substance in earlier explosions, excluding the October 30 blasts in which RDX was used.
A high-level team of officials, headed by chief secretary P.C. Sharma, briefed chief minister Tarun Gogoi late this evening on the matters to be raised at the chief ministers’ conference on internal security in New Delhi on Tuesday.
In another development, two powerful improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were recovered from Routa station weekly market in Udalguri this morning. The bombs, weighing 7kg each, were kept inside a plastic bag and placed beside a tree. Army bomb experts later defused them.
Assam Governor Shiv Charan Mathur today visited the victims of Thursday’s Bhootnath blast at Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital here. He met all the 16 injured as well as the hospital authorities and instructed the latter to provide the best possible treatment to the wounded. The governor also visited the blast site at Bhootnath on his way back from Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport after seeing off Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Hasina should act against NE ultras: PM Assam Tribune
SHILLONG, Jan 3 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said terrorists using Bangladesh to carry out attacks against India was a cause of worry and hoped Sheikh Hasinas new government would take appropriate measures in this regard. Singh who was here to inaugurate the 96th Indian Science Congress said that he hoped that the new government in Bangladesh would take appropriate measures and not allow terrorism to grow from its soil.

Admitting that northeast based insurgents groups were sheltering in the neighboring country, the Prime Minister said that matter was brought to the notice of successive Bangladesh governments in the past without any much success.

However, Indias hope was rekindled with Shiekh Hasina and her party, the Awami League and its allies winning a landslide victory in the general elections. Hasina has already said that Bangladesh was willing to cooperate with India to fight terrorism jointly.

We hope that the new government in Bangladesh would ensure that its soil wont be allowed for acts of terror against India, especially the northeast, Singh said adding, India was committed to root out the growing menace of terrorism and Naxalism, despite initial setbacks.

Ruling out talks with insurgent groups before they laid down arms, Singh asserted that the government would not compromise with those who have taken up guns to find solution.

On the Mumbai terror attacks, Singh said war was no solution but reiterated that Pakistan must act against the perpetrators of the attack and hand over those involved behind the horrible terrorists to India.

We have been pressing on Pakistan to hand over the terrorists responsible for the Mumbai attacks without success. We hope better sense will prevail on the Pakistani leadership and it will recognise that tackling terrorism is an area that needed mutual cooperation,

Meanwhile, Singh also expressed concern over Bangladeshi infiltration into India and said the fencing work along the Indo-Bangla border needs to be expedited. The government is worried about infiltration and fencing work needs to expedited, Singh said.


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