Central team in Assam

A high-level team of Central officials led by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekhar arrived in the Assam capital on Thursday on a two-day visit to assess the overall situation in the state including an on-the-spot assessment on the ULFA front.

The team including Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh, also attended a meeting of the Unified Command, constituted for counter-insurgency operations. The teams’ visit holds significance in the wake of recent reports of ULFA hatching a plot to hijack an aircraft, after which a Deccan Air employee and a human rights activist Lachit Bordoloi was arrested last week.

The team was also assessing the situation arising out of the halting of construction of a BG railway conversion project in the North Cachar Hills district following extortion notices and violent attacks on contractors and officials by some armed militant groups.