Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday renewed his appeal to the anti-talk faction of Ulfa to shun the path of violence and join the peace talks, honouring the sentiment of the people for peace. Regretting that the anti-talk faction of Ulfa and Maoists are regrouping, Mr Gogoi told reporters that his government has taken the necessary steps to foil the attempt of insurgent groups to create unrest in the state.
Mr Gogoi, however, claimed that the year 2011 was good for the state.
“We not only succeeded in starting peace talks with Ulfa but civilian casualties have also come down in comparison to the earlier years,” Mr Gogoi said, who announced a series of welfare schemes to help the poor and downtrodden.
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Tribal girl ‘sacrificed’ for good harvest
age correspondent
Raipur, Jan. 1
A minor tribal girl was “sacrificed” by two people of her community in a remote village in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit Bastar region to “reap a good harvest” of paddy crop, the police said. The victim of the gory superstition, Lalita, daughter of Budhiram Tati, was abducted from her village of Pota Cabin, a remote forested area in Bijapur district in south Bastar on October 21. Her body, with missing liver, was recovered in the nearby forest on October 27. A senior police officer of Bijapur district told this newspaper that the accused, belonging to Ora-on tribe, have confessed.