Ban on ULFA, NDFB extended

With role of NDFB and ULFA coming to the fore in Assa serial blasts, the Centre has extended ban on the two militant groups.

With the role of the NDFB and ULFA coming to the fore in last month8217;s serial blasts in Assam, the Centre extended the ban on the two militant groups as also on a Meghalaya-based group for two years.

The decision to reimpose the ban was taken at a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security, a Home Ministry official said. The ULFA ban, imposed in 1990, is being extended every two years and the present order was to have expired on November 26.

The ban on NDFB was to have ended on November 22 while that on Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council HNLC of Meghalaya on November 15. With the hands of NDFB and ULFA suspected behind the October 30 serial blasts which claimed 84 lives, the Home Ministry is likely to review its ongoing Suspension of Operation SoO agreement with the dominant Bodo militant group.

Meanwhile, Lt General retd Mandhata Singh has been appointed as Chairman of the Ceasefire Monitoring Group which keeps a watch on the truce between the government and the NSCN-IM. Singh will also head the Ceasefire Supervisory Board, which monitors the truce with NSCN-K.

A Home Ministry team, comprising Secretary Border Management Jarnail Singh and Joint Secretary Northeast Naveen Verma will visit Assam next week to review security along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Police arrest exiled Bhutan leader over Assam blasts

Police arrested a senior Bhutanese refugee leader on Wednesday in connection with bomb attacks in Assam that killed 86 people last month.

Tenzing G Zangpo, general secretary of the Druk National Congress DNC of Bhutan, was arrested along with a senior leader of separatist Indian group, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland NDFB, from Guwahati.

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Identifying those behind the Oct. 30 blasts has been difficult in a region riddled with several long-running armed insurgencies complicated by backing from Islamist groups based in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Police said the other arrested rebel leader was the 8220;home secretary8221; of the NDFB, a tribal outfit fighting for an independent homeland for the Bodo people in Assam.