Free Republic

: India may have survived doomsday predictions — once a favourite pastime of the West — of its balkanization but that does not seem to have deterred the Chinese. On Tuesday, New Delhi took exception to an article on a quasi-official Chinese website, which boasted that the “great Indian federation” was ripe for dismemberment if Beijing tried just a little. Posted on April 8 on the website iiss.cn (International Institute for Strategic Studies), the article detailed a roadmap for breaking up India. “To split India, China can bring into its fold countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, support Ulfa in...

Double bombing kills seven, one day before Indian PM visits Times Online - The ULFA, which has links to Islamic militants in neighbouring Bangladesh and has often staged attacks this time of year...

India’s northeastern state of Assam has endured a series of terrorist incidents, including bomb blasts, attacks on trains, and a fierce gun fight between security forces and terrorists, all within the first ten days of the New Year. On January 1, terrorists suspected of belonging to the separatist United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) triggered serial explosions targeting busy market places like the Birubari, Bhootnath, and Bhangagarh areas in Guwahati city, killing five persons and injuring over 50 others (Assam Tribune, January 2). The state police suspected the involvement of ULFA’s 709 Battalion in the serial blasts, though the group...

GUWAHATI: Nepal is turning out to be the latest sanctuary for separatists of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) with the outfit forging links with Maoist guerrillas in the neighbouring country. The sensational revelations were made by Ghanakanta Bora and his wife Tulsi, both senior ULFA leaders, who surrendered to army and civil authorities on Tuesday in eastern Assam's Tinsukia district. "The ULFA have set up some bases in Nepal with the help of Maoist guerrillas and the outfit was preparing to shift a large number of cadres and leaders to the neighbouring country," a senior Army Commander...

Guwahati, Jun 5: A top ULFA leader and his wife today surrendered before the Army in upper Asom. Defence sources said self-styled ULFA lieutenant Ghanakanta Bohra and his wife, 'sergeant major' Tulshi Borgohain, surrendered before 19 Kumaon Regiment at Laipuli Army camp in Tinsukia district. Bohra, who joined the ULFA in 1986, initially procured arms for the outfit. After five years of training in Myanmar, he started operating in upper Asom and later coordinated the ULFA's activities in Bhutan. He was arrested during the 'Operation All Clear' in the Himalayan kingdom, but was released soon. He acted as an interface...

There has been a mass exodus of Hindi-speaking migrants (All pics by Subhamoy Bhattacharjee) Hindi-speaking migrants have started fleeing India's north-eastern state of Assam again after a week of massacres and bomb attacks left nine dead and more than 20 injured. Separatists of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) were blamed for the nearly 10 explosions in the third week of May, when attacks on migrants resumed in the northern districts of Dibrugarh and Sibsagar after a lull of three months. Then followed a spate of bombings stretching from the far northern district of Tinsukia to the western...

The largest and most powerful of the northeast secessionist movements is the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).... Pakistan's ISI ...has facilitated cooperation between ULFA and other northeastern militant outfits with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, Islamist militant groups in Kashmir, Islamist groups in Bangladesh and a growing number of al Qaeda-linked jihadist groups operating in the region. Religion, ethnicity and ideology lose relevance within this militant network, as each group has a common interest in furthering their militant and financial capabilities by working together. For example, Tigers cadres organize training camps in the northeast and...

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana The beeline that 'secularists' of various hues - the CPI(M), Congress and Muslim League - are making to the Coimbatore Central Jail to pay their political obeisance to Abdul Nasser Madani will astonish only the uninitiated. The jailed jihadi reportedly masterminded the February 14, 1998, Coimbatore serial blasts that killed 59 people, but narrowly missing the main target, then BJP president LK Advani. Madani's communally inflammatory speeches predate his involvement in the Coimbatore blasts. Because of all these 'qualifications' he is a 'secular' icon in the...

NEW DELHI, July 8: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers as they are commonly known, are providing military training to the Maoist rebels of Nepal in Bihar near the Nepalese borders. Some French trainers have also been hired, a Maoist rebel leader revealed to the South Asia Tribune.

JALPAIGURI (Indo-Nepal-Bhutan-Bangladesh Border), July 24: Over 165 Maoist cadres are being trained in Bhutan at present, as Bhutan has been included in the future Maoist country, ‘Dandkaranya Desam’. The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) are imparting the training. A senior leader of the Standing Committee of a Maoist outfit confirmed this to the South Asia Tribune.

While India is willing to supply the equipment, it is concerned that Myanmar's security forces are not trained to use the equipment. India apparently has communicated this concern to Myanmar and, as a way to overcome the problem, suggested that the equipment be deployed in joint operations with the Indian military. For decades, insurgent groups like the ULFA, the NSCN-K, the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), the People's Liberation Army and the People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak have run their operations from bases and training camps on Myanmar's side of the 1,664-kilometer India-Myanmar border. For many years, the military junta...

The search for ammunition and explosives is yet to end in the Bogra district of Bangladesh even as the police disclose that they have already seized what is being termed as the 'biggest ever haul' not only in the district, but in the entire country. The seizure in Jogarpara village and its vicinity has yielded, as of July 6, 2003, a total of 95,282 rounds of ammunition and 175 kilograms of high-powered explosives in the Kahalu upazila (subdivision) area in five separate raids, including the 62,100 bullets and 115 kilograms of explosives first seized on June 27 alone. Investigations into...

Bombs ripped through two buses, killing four people and wounding 39 others, and a grenade blast injured seven more Thursday as separatist violence surged in India's northeastern Assam state, police said. A powerful explosion later rocked Assam's capital, Gauhati, but police reported no casualties. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but police blamed rebels from the United Liberation Front of Asom. Assam's top elected official, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, said the rebels, who have been fighting security forces since 1979 for a sovereign Assam, are now "waging a war on civilians." The first bomb went off when a...

GUWAHATI: At least 15 people were killed on Sunday, when militants exploded a powerful bomb during Independence Day celebrations in an eastern town in Assam, police said. The blast, blamed on the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), occurred at 9.30 am during the official celebrations at a parade ground at Dhemaji town. Most victims were reported to be students participating in the Independence Day parade in the district headquarter town. Inspector General of Police Khagen Sharma said the attack was suspected to be the handiwork of ULFA. Chaos and panic prevailed at the Dhemaji ground following the blast and...