north east online - north east india news: Dec 3, 2009

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Two Haryana policewomen allege rape

K
ARNAL - In separate incidents, two policewomen posted at the Haryana Armed Police (HAP) campus near here have complained that they were raped, police officials said here Thursday.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Surinder Singh said two cases of rape have been registered by police at the Civil Lines and Sadar police stations. The HAP campus is in Madhuban near Karnal, 125 km from Chandigarh.

In one case, the policewoman, a constable, alleged she had been raped by a local political leader who promised to marry her.

In the second case, another woman constable alleged she had been raped by a person in the same department where she was working.

The DSP said one person has been arrested and efforts were being made to arrest the second one also.

Rohtang Pass re-opened for traffic

M
ANALI - The Rohtang Pass, at an altitude of 13,050 feet in Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu district, was Thursday re-opened for vehicular traffic after it remained closed for 24 days after massive snowfall in the region, an official said here.

“The Rohtang Pass re-opened for the traffic this (Thursday) evening. This would now enable the people to reach the tribal Lahaul Valley (in Lahaul and Spiti district),” S.K. Doon, commander of the 38 Task Force of the General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF) - a wing of the Border Road Organisations - that maintains the Manali-Leh highway that passes through the pass.

He said the pass saw three to five feet snowfall Nov 9.

A large number of people had been stranded on both sides of the pass due to its closure.

The weather at the Rohtang Pass, located 52 km from here, is harsh. A sudden drop in temperatures even in summers triggers wintry conditions.

Over 75 people were caught in strong icy winds Nov 20 when they were crossing the Rohtang Pass on foot and 14 died on the spot.

Rajkhowa's whereabouts may be known in days or hours: Gogoi

A
ssam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday stopped short of admitting the arrest of Arabinda Rajkhowa, chairman of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), but confirmed that a 'breakthrough' has been made.

"I cannot say how the breakthrough has happened, but all I can say is that a breakthrough has happened and maybe within the next few days or next few hours you would know the whereabouts of Arabinda Rajkhowa," the chief minister told journalists.

Gogoi's statement has virtually confirmed that one of India's most wanted separatist leaders is in India's custody.

"We are hopeful of getting some good news very soon and the developments are moving in the right direction. The signals are encouraging," Gogoi said.

Intelligence officials on Wednesday claimed to have taken custody of 53-year-old Rajkhowa after he was reportedly arrested by Bangladeshi security forces and handed over to Indian authorities.

"All I can say is that the ULFA can discuss anything, all issues, except their demand of sovereignty, when they hold peace talks with the government," Gogoi said.

"We on our part are ready to do anything and even release jailed ULFA leaders if the talks progress well and if their release is required to smoothen the peace process."

There are now indications that New Delhi is planning to offer safe passage to the ULFA leader instead of showing him as arrested to facilitate formal peace talks with the outfit, which has been fighting for an independent homeland in Assam since 1979.

"If they want safe passage, we are ready to give. All these issues can be discussed and worked out," the chief minister said.

The chief minister, however, rejected media reports of the arrest of Ranjan Daimary, leader of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in Bangladesh.

The NDFB was blamed for the Oct 30, 2008 serial explosions that killed some 100 people in Assam.

PM Manmohan Singh''s web site hacked

N
ew Delhi, Dec. 2 (ANI): The website of the Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has apparently been hacked.

On opening the website manmohansingh.org, the following hacked message appears in two sections -- Able Prime Minister and PM''s Biography --.

"Able Prime Minister

Pakistan Zindabad

India is one of the those countries who are sponsoring and behind the terrorism attacks on innocent people in Pakistan & Afghanistan. As your sponsored terrorists were defeated in SL, We are also going to defeat them in Pakistan. You are spending billion of $ for purchasing weapons, but you are unable to provide food and shelter to your millions of people. Shame Shame Shame

And ya F... you ICW, you cant hack sites like this one. Look, we have f...... your PM. lol!

PAKbugs Rocks!

We are Zombie_KSA, xOOmxOOm, Sp0ofer, Hav0c, [A], Cyber-Criminal

Special Greatz to: aBu Muhammad, Agd_Scrop & All Muslims

Long Live Pakistan

Although the said website is not Prime Minister''s official site, it appeared to have been hacked by someone in Pakistan. It''s a private website.

The Prime Minister''s Office refused to comment. (ANI)

Kashmir is disputed territory, says Geelani

S
rinagar, Dec.3 (ANI): Kashmir is not an integral part of India, it is disputed, claimed Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the chairman of the hardline faction of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), on Wednesday.

"We never refuse dialogue, but from March 23, 1952, more than 130 rounds of dialogues have been taken place but they were unable to provide any solution,” said Geelani.

“India has to accept one basic fact that Jammu and Kashmir is not an integral part of India, it is a disputed territory," he added during an interaction with the media on the sidelines of an Eid Milan party here.

"Our demand is very much genuine and based on historical facts. The people of Jammu and Kashmir must be given right to self determination so that they can decide their future whether they want to be with India or exceed to Pakistan," he said.

Some leaders of the moderate faction of the APHC held secret talks with Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram recently, suggesting that plans are afoot for a resumption of dialogue with separatist elements in the Kashmir Valley.

The Hurriyat has urged New Delhi to pull out troops, release prisoners and end human rights violations before resuming peace talks.

Dialogue between the government and the separatists broke down in 2006. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered to resume talks during a visit to Kashmir in October.

Officials say more than 47,000 have been killed in the past 20 years in the Muslim majority region, where anti-India sentiment still runs deep.

With violence down in recent years, India began withdrawing troops from Kashmir''s main towns and handed over law and order to the police, giving signals they were getting ready for peace talks.

Any sign of peace talks may help reduce tension in the Himalayan region, the focus of conflict between India and Pakistan for decades. (ANI)

Ulfa deputy C-in-C also in net?

U
LFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa's arrest in Dhaka has understandably hogged the limelight. But intelligence agencies here are equally interested in Hitesh Kalita, one of the three others arrested with Rajkhowa and handed over to BSF at Gokulnagar in Tripura on Wednesday.

The other two are ULFA's key publicity wing member Apurba Barua and Biswamohan Deb Barma, chairman of National Liberation Front of Tripura.

Hitesh Kalita is believed to be the alias of Raju Barua, the ULFA's dreaded deputy commander-in-chief and military spokesman. Though next to the outfit's armed wing commander Paresh Barua in the ULFA's hierarchy, Raju Barua is said to be the outfit's main weapons manager besides having overseen major subversive operations until ill-health forced him to lie low a couple of years back.

"There's a fifty per cent chance of Hitesh Kalita actually being Raju Barua. We will get to know for sure when the arrested ULFA men are brought to Guwahati possibly within the next 48 hours," said a senior Special Branch officer. "If Kalita is the real McCoy, the ULFA is as good as dead."

Raju Barua, intelligence officials said, has been the ULFA's main schemer. His modus operandi included propping up lesser outfits such and striking strategic deals with tribal militant groups. The Kamtapur Liberation Organizion, which wants a separate homeland for the Koch-Rajbongshi community in areas straddling West Bengal and Assam, is said to have been Barua's initiative. He also was the brain behind ULFA's axis with National Democratic Front of Bodoland and outfits of Tripura, Manipur and Nagaland.

"If we have Raju Barua along with Rajkhowa, Paresh Barua will be on his own, what with ULFA's secretary Anup Chetia in the grips of the Bangladesh government and deputy chairman Pradip Gogoi languishing in Guwahati jail," the officer said.

The "beginning of the ULFA's possible end" began last month with the arrest of its "finance secretary" Chitrabon Hazarika and "foreign secretary" Sashadhar Choudhury. The two were handed over to BSF in Tripura by Bangladesh authorities.

Ulfa chairman held in Dhaka, ready to talk

W
ith strong reports coming from Bangladesh that Arabinda Rajkhowa, chairman of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), had been arrested, the government on Wednesday announced that the Ulfa was expected to come forward for talks in the next few days.

Chidambaram said the government was willing to talk to the ULFA leaders provided “they abjure violence and there is no demand for sovereignty”. “Ulfa is in disarray today… In the next few days, I expect the ULFA leadership to make a political statement… a positive statement,” Home Minister P Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Chidambaram said the government was willing to talk to the ULFA leaders provided “they abjure violence and there is no demand for sovereignty”.

According to sources, Rajkhowa was picked up on Monday from his Dhaka residence. He had been hiding in Bangladesh for over a decade.

Some reports claimed he had not been formally arrested, but would be informally handed over to Indian intelligence agencies at the Gakul Nagar outpost in Tripura on the Indo-Bangla border soon.

Home Secretary GK Pillai and his Bangladesh counterpart Abdus Sobhan Sikder —who is in Delhi for talks — said, however, they did not have official confirmation of Rajkhowa’s detention. But official sources have not even confirmed the arrests of two other ULFA leaders – ULFA’s ‘foreign secretary’ Sasha Choudhury, and ‘finance secretary’ Chitrabon Hazarika – who were caught at the Tripura border on November 5.

Intelligence officers insisted that Bangladesh had been “very cooperative and determined” to clear out Indian insurgents who treated their country as a safe haven, ever since Sheikh Hasina came to power last year.

The change in Dhaka’s approach was very visible at the three-day home secretary-level talks that ended on Wednesday.

Rajkhowa and Paresh Barua, who heads the military wing of the ULFA, have been its two main leaders ever since the organisation was founded in 1979.

But lately they were reported to have fallen out. While Rajkhowa maintained the group should hold talks with the Indian government, Barua was dead against it, unless the talks related to ULFA’s main demand — the sovereignty of Assam.

Two companies of Ulfa’s 28th battalion — the group’s crack unit — have also already declared unilateral truce
and favoured talks. Reports have claimed that Choudhury and Hazarika too favoured talks, and had not in fact been captured, but had surrendered.

Ulfa had been operating from Bangladesh since 1991, its dependence on Dhaka increased after the Royal Bhutan Army cleared out its camps in Bhutan in 2003.

Bangalore IM bombers held in Meghalaya

T
roops of the Border Security Force caught two Kerala-based operatives of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) in Meghalaya after they tried to sneak in early Wednesday morning.

The two - Siraj Samsuddin (35) and T Nasir (25) - are suspected to have been involved in the serial bombing of Bengaluru in July 2008 that killed over 15 persons. They are also accused of killing IIT professor MC Puri on the Indian Institute of Science campus in Bangalore in December 2005.

"Our men caught Samsuddin, 35, and T some 400 metres inside border post number 1272/6 in East Khasi Hills district around 1 am. We handed the two, both from Kannur in Kerala, over to the Pynursla police station," said BSF spokesman Ravi Gandhi from Shillong.

The duo's arrest is a rare outcome of intelligence sharing between the BSF and the Bangladesh Rangers.

Senior Meghalaya police officials said the two confessed to being key IM operatives. "There's little doubt about their involvement in the Bangalore bombings, but we are trying to find out more about their background and links with external terror agencies," a senior officer said declining to be quoted.

A group of terrorists had on December 28, 2005, stormed into the IISc campus and fired indiscriminately killing Puri, professor emeritus of Mathematics Department of IIT Delhi and injuring four others.

On July 25, 2008, six simultaneous blasts ripped Bangalore and left over 15 people dead. The serial blasts were pinned on the IM, which had come into existence in May that year after the Jaipur bombings.

IM is believed to be a "shadow amalgam" of the Students Islamic Movement of India and the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

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