north east online - north east india news: Nov 1, 2009

Sunday, November 1, 2009

AFSPA ineffective, says Mooshahary

T
he controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act on Saturday came under the scanner of Meghalaya Governor RS Mooshahary and additional director of Intelligence Bureau with both maintaining that it was time to revisit the enforcement of the act in Manipur.

Prolonged use of the Act has made it ineffective. There have been abuses of the Act and it will continue. If it is removed, I think the situation would not worsen, in fact it will improve, Mooshahary told a conference of northeastern states' police chiefs in Shillong.

Mooshahary, former chief of NSG and BSF, said it is human nature to 'transgress the bounds of law'.

It is time to reconsider the Act. Once it is removed, the civil society will be more responsible. There is always a scope of reintroducing it, if one thinks that it is needed, he said.

IB additional director RN Ravi said that there is every reason to subscribe to the opinion (of the governor).

Militants explode grenade at a hospital in Imphal

U
nidentified militants on Saturday exploded a powerful grenade at a private hospital in Imphal West district of Manipur, police said.

No one was injured.

The militants lobbed the grenade in front of Imphal Hospital near here at around 11.40 pm.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the crime, the police said.

HIV+ soldier dumped, claim kin; missing, claims Army

T
he kin of an Assam Rifles soldier has alleged his unit dumped him after he was confirmed as a HIV positive case. The force has refuted this charge, maintaining the rifleman had gone incommunicado before he was traced to a hospital and provided an attendant.

Reports emanating from Nagaland capital Kohima said the rifleman, a Naga, was on October 8 admitted in Naga Hospital, Kohima without prior medical reports. Doctors said they put him on anti-retroviral treatment – meant for HIV+ patients – after his CD4 immunity count was found to be as low as 36.

The rifleman’s sister and brother-in-law alleged they had located him lying virtually unattended in the corridor of a hospital in Guwahati. “We brought him to Kohima and got him admitted,” the sister said.

The Nagaland Network of Positive People assured financial help for the rifleman. He was subsequently shifted to the hospital’s ICU.

Assam Rifles’ Kohima-based spokesman Pallab Choudhury denied the rifleman was dumped by his unit. The soldier was with the 42 Assam Rifles and posted at Imphal in adjoining Manipur.

According to a communiqué mailed to HT by Choudhury, the rifleman was diagnosed for immune surveillance with tubercular lymphadenitis on July 8. On August 19, he was referred to the forces’ TB Hospital in Meghalaya capital Shillong.

The rifleman was in the first week of September admitted to the Military Hospital in Shillong after he complained of lower backache and neck pain. The military hospital discharged him on October 1 for readmission in the Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH). “We assigned rifleman YD Singha as his sick attendant in GMCH, from where he was voluntarily taken away by his kin on October 9 to Dimapur,” the communiqué said.

Dimapur District Hospital, however, refused admission and the rifleman was taken to the Kohima hospital for further treatment. In the meantime, sick attendant Singha returned to his unit from Dimapur. “Neither the rifleman nor his kin subsequently communicated with his unit. It was only after we received a call from a civilian in Dimapur that we came to know the rifleman is in a Kohima hospital. We have dispatched another sick attendant for the rifleman, and we are doing our best to help the patient and his kin.”

Seven separatists killed in Manipur encounter

S
even separatists were killed in a pre-dawn encounter with security forces on Sunday in Manipur, police said.

A police spokesperson said the encounter took place between a group of heavily armed militants and a column of the paramilitary Assam Rifles near village Sanapat in Imphal East district, about 30 km southeast of Manipur's capital Imphal.

"Based on hard intelligence, an Assam Rifles column went to the area for an anti-insurgency operation when they came under attack from the militants with automatic weapons," the police officer said.

The Assam Rifles troopers retaliated and the encounter lasted for close to an hour in which seven militants were killed.

"Maybe, a few of them might have escaped under the cover of darkness," the officer said.

A huge cache of explosives and weapons, including rifles, carbines, and small arms, was recovered from the dead militants.

The identity of the militants was not established as yet.

"The process of identification is on although we are not sure as to which group they belong to," the officer said.

There are some 20 militant groups active in Manipur, a state of 2.4 million people bordering Myanmar, with demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy.

More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Manipur during the past two decades.

Too much diet soda can damage your kidney

W
ashington, Nov 1 (ANI): Too much diet soda can lead to decline in kidney function among women, say researchers.

The team from Brigham and Women''s Hospital has found that individuals consuming a diet high in sodium or artificially sweetened drinks might be damaging their kidney.

"There are currently limited data on the role of diet in kidney disease," said Dr Julie Lin, MPH, FASN of Brigham and Women''s Hospital.

"While more study is needed, our research suggests that higher sodium and artificially sweetened soda intake are associated with greater rate of decline in kidney function." Lin added.

In the study involving more than 3,000 women found that "in women with well-preserved kidney function, higher dietary sodium intake was associated with greater kidney function decline, which is consistent with experimental animal data that high sodium intake promotes progressive kidney decline."

Another study also conducted by Dr. Lin and Dr. Gary Curhan examined the influence of sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages on kidney function decline in the same group of Nurses'' Health Study participants.

This investigation reported "a significant two-fold increased odds, between two or more servings per day of artificially sweetened soda and faster kidney function decline; no relation between sugar-sweetened beverages and kidney function decline was noted" said Dr. Lin.

The findings were presented at the American Society of Nephrology''s annual meeting in San Diego, California. (ANI)

Court allows Delhi police to conduct narco analysis test on Ghandy

N
ew Delhi, Oct 31 (ANI): The Patiala House court on Saturday allowed the Special Cell of Delhi Police to conduct a narco analysis test on Kobad Ghandy, a Polit Bureau Member of the banned CPI (Maoist).

The court’s decision comes after a medical board of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) submitted its report and gave the go-ahead for narco analysis test on Ghandy, saying that he can withstand the test.

The medical board has also said that the test should be conducted under strict medical supervision as Ghandy is suffering from hypertension and other ailments.

Earlier on October 20, the Special Cell had filed an application before Chief Judicial Magistrate Kaveri Baweja seeking the narco analysis test on Ghandy, arguing that he was not cooperating with the police due to which it was getting difficult for them to carry out their investigation.

Taking action on the application, the court had directed AIIMS to constitute a medical board to examine Ghandy’s fitness aspect.

Ghandy, who heads the CPI (Maoist) publication wing, was nabbed from South Delhi last month following inputs from intelligence agencies. He would be in judicial custody till November 13.

He has been a part of the People’s War Group (PWG) since its initial stages. (ANI)

Seven suspected militants killed in Manipur

I
mphal, Nov 1 (ANI) At least seven suspected militants were killed by the Assam Rifles in an encounter in Manipur''s Imphal East district today.

According to the sources, the encounter took place at around 11.30 pm on Saturday between the suspected ultras and Assam Rifles personnel at Andro Sanapat, about 25 km from here.

A huge cache of explosives including two AK-47s and four pistols were recovered from the spot.

The encounter is still going on. (ANI)

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