Black Widow surrenders weapons in Assam

Guwahati: Over 170 guerillas of the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel) (DHDJ) or Black Widow have commenced surrendering their weapons from Wednesday.

Earlier on Sunday, nearly 193 rebels of the DHDJ had surrendered their weapons well ahead of the deadline given by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

Chidambaram had asked the banned ultras to surrender weapons before September 15.

The DHD (J) is responsible for creating terror in the North Cachar Hill District of Assam for last six years, during which over 300 people have been killed.

Among those who surrendered arms were Daniel Dimasa, Daku Dimasa, David Dimasa and Nalo Dimasa who were considered as hardcore militants.

According to the new rules for facilitating peace talks with the militant organization, an outfit has to first abjure violence by depositing weapons and stay away from extortion by moving to designated camps. Only its top leadership will be allowed to sit for talks.

Defence spokesman, Col.R Kalia, said those who have deposited weapons have been kept in two temporary camps at Kapuchera and Jatinga under heavy escort by troops of the Red Shield Division of the Army.

A formal surrender ceremony would be held at Haflong later in the month in the presence of the State Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, sources said.

The breakaway group of the DHD (J) led by James Dimasa are still undecided on joining the peace process.

According to Additional Director General (Special Branch) Khagen Sarmah, all the cadres of the outfit are expected to surrender their weapons in the next couple of days.

The government has adopted a multi-dimensional strategy in North Cachar Hills with strong deployment of security forces. The brigade headquarters of the Army at Haflong has coordinating all the efforts.

Till now 373 insurgents have come over-ground depositing 136 weapons including AK series weapons, M16 rifles, INSAS rifles, rocket launchers, grenades and wireless sets, sources said.

Bandh affects normal life in Assam's troubled district

Haflong (Assam), July 06 The 24-hour bandh to protest against the ethnic clashes between Zeme-Naga and Dimasa tribesmen today affected normal life in North Cachar Hills district of Assam.

Shops, banks, schools other educational institutions remained closed while traffic was thin on the national highway, sources said.

There was no report of any untoward incident, the police said.

More than 32 people have been killed and 200 houses were burned in a series of violent clashes between the warring communities in the last three months.

Besides, the militant groups of Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel) and rival factions of NSCN-IM and NSCN-Khaplang have targeted railway property in the strife-torn district.

Assam govt, DHD faction welcome ban

Guwahati , Jul 5 The Assam government and Dima Halam Daogah ( DHD-Dulip Nunisa) group have welcomed the Centre&aposs ban on DHD (J) faction.

"The Centre&aposs ban of the DJD (J) group will go a long way in effectively dealing with the ultras who of late had wrought havoc in the hill district of North Cachar", a government spokesman said here today.

Meanwhile, DHD (Nunisa) faction which has voiced desire for ceasefire with the Centre, has said it will"wait and see the results of the ban imposed on the anti-talk faction (DHD-J)".

Self-styled Commander-in-chief of the faction, Pranab Nunisa refused to comment on the decision to ban the Jewel group but said they will wait for subsequent government action on the matter.

"The ULFA has been banned for years but still their activities are on. So we will wait and see", he said.

Black Widow chief held but threat continues

AGARTALA, 7 JUNE : Though the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) supremo Jewel Garlosa’s arrest came as a major setback for Dimasa rebellion in the North Cachar Hills of Assam beyond Tripura’s fringeline, the insurgents' threat to essential supply lines to Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram alongwith Barak Valley areas is still worsening.

Now, Army has been deployed to provide security to the railway traffic in the Lumding-Badarpur-Silchar section following frequent rebel attacks on passenger trains and railway wagons carrying food grains and other essential items across north cachar hill areas.

One may remember, DHD, a rebel outfit in Assam’s North Cachar Hills had in 2003 expressed willingness to shun violence and seek solution to its problems through peaceful negotiation. The DHD group, which had opposed negotiation, subsequently floated “Black Widow” under Jewel Garlosa’s leadership to “fight for its cause”.

The “ Black Widow” guerillas indulged in large-scale violence in North Cachar Hills in recent months.

There were a series of rebel attacks on engineers and other employees engaged in railway and highway construction projects, trains and highway traffic in North Cachar Hill in the last two years, inflicting substantial casualties.

Hundreds of tribal houses were torched in the area giving rise to tension between ethnic groups recently.

Acting on a tip off, Guwahati Police arrested Garlosa and two of his close associates at a hotel in Bangalore on 4 June last. They were flown in to Guwahati yesterday. The Black Widow chief is now being interrogated by senior police officers and intelligence officials in an undisclosed place DHD (Jewel) faction’s “home secretary” Franki Dimasa was shot dead by security personnel in the Assam capital on Thursday last.

The chief executive member of the North Cachar Autonomous Hills District Council, Mr Mohit Hojai, was arrested by police for being in close collusion with Garlosa’s “Black Widow”. Mr Hojai had sent Rs 1 crore to the Black Widow chief for “purchasing arms”, it was alleged.

Police captured two staff of the North Cachar Autonomous Hills District Council along with the cash at a Guwahati hotel recently. The two Council employees were carrying the cash to a secret destination in Shillong.

The amount was given by Mr Hojai from Council funds earlier sanctioned by the state government for development of the hill areas. Since then, the state government has suspended activities of the North Cachar Autonomous Hills District Council.

A senior BJP leader from Silchar complained over the telephone: “Assam’s Congress government had deliberately tried to protest the the tribals leaders associated with the Council NC who have close links with the Black Widow till the last moment obviously for political gains."

Rebels rain bullets on train CRPF jawan killed, 17 hurt

Nagaon, April 11 : A CRPF constable was killed and 17 persons were injured when suspected militants of the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Gorlosa) sprayed the Badarpur-Lumding Barak Express with bullets in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district today. Thaiso Langthasa, a 32-year-old passenger, said, “The train was moving slowly as it was climbing. The attackers fired from either side of the track as soon as the engine reached their level. They also lobbed a grenade. Five coaches were hit.” The grenade exploded after hitting the window of a coach, Thaiso, who was travelling from Haflong to Langting, said. The attack took place near Wadrengdisha between Haflong and Maibong railway stations on the metre gauge track around 2.15pm. The site is 153km from Badarpur railway junction to the south and 75km from Lumding and 30km from the district headquarters of Haflong to the north. Maibong civil sub-divisional officer Ghana Kanta Pegu said the train continued its journey despite the firing and reached Maibong station. The injured passengers were taken off the train there. “A special train on medical duty reached Maibong this evening. We are shifting all the seriously injured to Lumding and Haflong,” Pegu added. The rest are being treated at the Maibong community health centre. Amarjeet Singha, 21, a constable of the 5th Assam Police Battalion, said from the Maibong health centre, where he was undergoing treatment before being shifted to Lumding, “I was in the coach for security personnel next to the engine. I saw at least five militants firing at us from sophisticated weapons...bullets were raining on us. “Two bullets hit me, one on my right arm and another on the left leg,” he said, ruing that he did not have a firearm as he was returning after work. The other security personnel in the coach retaliated, he added. Singha, who was on his way to Lumding from Haflong, hails from Jalukbari in Guwahati and had joined the battalion two years ago. The deceased constable, identified as A.K. Tiwari of the 144 CRPF, was also travelling in this coach. Three persons — RPSF constable Dhanesh Buragohain, Rangthang Haflongbar of Semkhor and an unidentified middle-aged man — were seriously injured in the attack. The unidentified person suffered serious burn injuries as a kerosene stove, being carried in one of the coaches, burst after being hit by a bullet. “He was sitting close to the stove,” a senior doctor at Maibong CHC, Tilok Deka, said. The two civilians have been shifted to Haflong while a jawan of the Railway Protection Security Force has been shifted to Lumding, Deka said. Two women and two children were also among the injured, he added.  Another passenger, Dipti Hojai of Lumding, who suffered splinter injuries and was also undergoing treatment at the Maibong CHC, said, “We were peeping out to see from where the firing was coming. At that moment a grenade was hurled and it hit the iron grill of the window of our coach. I can’t remember anything after that.” NC Hills district superintendent of police Mridulananda Sarma said the DHD (J) are suspected to have launched the attack, but investigations are on to ascertain the facts. He and deputy commissioner S. Jagannathan visited the spot. An NF Railway spokesperson said discussions were on to decide whether to run trains in the section from tomorrow. Train services in the district have often been disrupted because of militant attacks. The railway still does not run passenger trains in this section at night.

Assam: One dead, 14 injured as ultras attack train

Haflong, Apr 10 : A CRPF man was killed and 14 passengers were injured when Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel) ultras opened fire at a running train at Wadrengdisa station in Assam's North Cachar hill district on Friday.

The DHD(J) ultras, armed with automatic weapons, fired from a hill top at the Badarpur-Lumding Barak Express as it left the Wadrengdisa station under Maibong police station, 60 km from here.

CRPF's Anil Tiwari, who was injured in the firing, died on the way to the hospital. 14 passengers including three women, were also critically wounded.

The ultras escaped in nearby thick jungles.

Police reinforcements have been rushed from Haflong, the district headquarters and a manhunt launched.

Surveyors recount ordeal

DHD-J men rescued us from captors, say employees

(From left) Nitish Kumar, Mahinder Kumar, C. Suresh and D.S.K. Sarthak at the press meet on Saturday. A Telegraph picture Guwahati, Feb 22 : The four abducted surveyors of a Chennai-based company, who came out of their captivity a few days ago, today said they were rescued by the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the Dima Halam Daogah after a gunbattle with their captors. C. Suresh, Nitish Kumar, Mahinder Kumar and D.S.K. Sarthak, engaged in seismic survey in the troubled North Cachar Hills district for the Chennai-based Eagle Marketing Corporation, were abducted from the remote Langting area on February 5. Narrating their experience in captivity, the four surveyors said nine heavily armed men had kept them captive, but had not tortured or ill-treated them. “They made us walk from one place to another throughout the day. But otherwise they did not ill-treat us,” Sarthak said. A nascent outfit, Dimasa National Liberation Front, had claimed responsibility for the abduction. Initially, the police had suspected that the DHD (J) was behind the abduction. Sarthak said on the morning of February 17, while they were being shifted from one place to another in the thick jungle, their captors were suddenly attacked around 10am. “Before we could understand anything, the men, who were escorting us, started retaliating. The gunbattle lasted for 15 minutes after which our abductors fled,” he added. He said they were rescued by militants of the DHD (J) and handed over to the apex Dimasa tribal body, Jatikhe Naiso Hasom, the next day. The apex Dimasa organisation, in turn, handed them over to the police on February 19. The DHD (J) launched the rescue operation after Ashok Saikia, son of former chief minister Hiteshwar Saikia and the proprietor of the Indian Oil Tanking Limited (IOTL), which has engaged Eagle Marketing Corporation for the seismic survey, assured to broker peace with the Centre on behalf of the militant group. Saikia said he would use his family’s “good relations” with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to broker peace with the DHD (J). Singh, the Rajya Sabha MP from the state, is a tenant of the Saikias’ Sarumotoria residence here. Talking to reporters this evening, Saikia and the director of operations of Eagle Marketing Corporation, Veeraiah, said the seismic survey, that had been suspended following the abductions, would be resumed soon. “We have no intention to forgo the work. We have asked the state government to provide us more security,” Veeraiah said.

DHD seeks Delhi role

Nagaon/Guwahati, Feb 15 : The pro-talks Dilip Nunisa faction of the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) today demanded the Union home ministry’s interference in tackling law and order problems in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district.

In a one-page memorandum to Union home minister P. Chidambaram, signed jointly by DHD chief Dilip Nunisa, its home secretary Kanto Langthasa and its organising secretary Rengsingh Dimasa, the outfit claimed that its rival faction led by Jewel Gorlosa was solely responsible for the situation. 

It demanded strong action against the DHD (Jewel), also known as “Black Widow”. The memorandum was handed over to Karbi Anglong deputy commissioner S.N. Sahu.

The DHD alleged that the local administration and the NC Hills Autonomous Council were silent on DHD (J).

“Killings, kidnappings, tortures and extortions targeting innocent people of the district have been continuing unabated. The militants of the Black Widow faction are moving freely without any check,” the memorandum stated.

It alleged that the Gorlosa group had killed six innocent people in the last two weeks and the security forces had remained a mute spectator.

It sought compensation to the families of those killed by militants in the district. 

The memorandum comes a day after the Gorlosa faction placed a four-point demand to the government in return for the outfit’s help in secu-ring the release of four abducted surveyors. Dimasa National Liberation Front had claimed responsibility for the abduction.